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THE AUDITORIUM OR TOWN HALL Of CHICAGO 





























































































































































SWAMI VIVEKANANDA 

» 

ON 

HINDUISM. 

AN EXAMINATION OF HIS ADDRESS AT THE CHICAGO 
PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 


SIR AiPEED LYALL ON HINDUISM. 

“ A mere troubled sea, without shore or visible horizon, driven to and fro by 
the winds of boundless credulity and grotesque invention.” 

Asiatic Studies, p. 3. 


SIR UADHATA ROW. 

“ What is not TRUE is not PATRIOTIC.” 

PRAYER OP THE UPANISHADS. 

“ Dead us from the unreal to the real. 
Dead vis from darkness to light.” 


FIRST EDITION, 4,000 COPIES. 



> * 

*> ) 

> * 1 

MADRAS: 

THE CHRISTIAN LITERATURE SOCIETY. 

S. P, C. K. PRESS, VEPERY. 


1895 






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PREFACE. 


The remarks on the Swamps Address are largely based on an 
able article criticising it, which appeared in a Calcutta journal, 
The Indian Nation, edited by a Hindu. The compiler is also 
indebted for valuable suggestions to the Rev. Dr. K. S. Macdonald, 
of Calcutta, and to the Rev. R. A. Hume of Ahmadnagar. 

This brochure is primarily intended for India; but it may be 
of some service in America. The reception Swami Yivekauanda 
has met in the United States has convinced the editor of the 
Indian Mirror , a Calcutta daily, that the “ Higher Hinduism” 
is what is needed by its people to “ satisfy their famishing 
souls.” (See page 6). The remark of the Indian Nation is quoted : 

“ The pure and undefiled Hinduism which the Swami preached has 
no existence to-day, has not had existence for centuries, and is at the 
present moment only an affair of books and not of life, a thing, there¬ 
fore, of merely abstract interest. The only Hinduism that it is practi¬ 
cally worth while'discussing to-day is sectarian Hinduism. It is that 
Hinduism which resents the slaughter of kine, which keeps out the 
England-returned Hindu, which proscribes re-marriage of widows and 
marriage between different castes, which makes the early marriage 
of girls compulsory. It is that Hinduism which is distinct from Brah- 
moism. It is the only Hinduism that we can admit to be real.” 
May 21st, 1894. 

Americans may also be amused to learn from a Japanese 
delegate to Chicago, that they are now strongly impressed with 
the inferiority of Christianity and the glory of Buddhism ! 

There is not a single count in the indictment against Hinduism 
which the writer does not believe to be absolutely true, but to show 
that it is not mere “ missionary slander,” the opinion of Macaulay 
may be quoted. He was one of the ablest men that ever came to 
India, and spent several years in the country : 

“ The great majority of the pop elation of India consist of idolaters, 
blindly attached to doctrines and rites which, considered merely with 
reference to the temporal interests of mankind, are in the highest 
degree pernicious. In no part of the world has a religion ever existed 
more unfavourable to the moral and intellectual health of our race. The 
Brahmanical mythology is so Absurd that it necessarily debases every 
mind which receives it as truth ; and with this absurd mythology is 
bound up an absurd system of physics, an absurd geography, an absurd 
astronomy. Nor is this form of Paganism more favourable to art than 
to science. Through the whole Hindu Pantheon you will look in vain for 
anything resembling those beautiful and majestic forms which stood in 


VI 


PREFACE. 


the shrines of ancient Greece. All is hideous, and grotesque, and ignoble. 
As this superstition is of all superstitions the most irrational, and 
of all superstitions the most inelegant, so it is of all superstitions 
the most immoral. Emblems of vice are objects of public worship. 
Acts of vice are acts of public worship. The courtesans are as much 
a part of the establishment of the temple, as much the ministers of the 
gods as the priests. Crimes against life, crimes against property, are 
not only permitted but enjoined, by this odious theology. But for our 
interference human victims would still be offered to the Ganges and the 
widow would still be laid on the pile with the corpse of her husband, 
and burned alive by her own children. It is by the command and under 
the special protection of one of the most powerful goddesses that the 
Thugs join themselves to the unsuspecting travellers, make friends with 
him, slip the noose round his neck, plunge their knives into his eyes, 
hide him in the earth, and divide his money and baggage.”* 

Educated Hindus should understand that flatterers, like Mrs. 
Besant, are not their best friends, nor those who speak in such a 
way of Christianity and Hinduism, that the impression left is that 
of the Chinaman, “ Your joss and my ioss; both very good joss/? 
(Page 45.) 

Special attention is invited to the three mottoes on the title 
page. The reader is strongly urged to offer the prayer of the 
Upanishad, “ Lead us from the unreal to the realY 

Madras, April, 1895. 

J. Murdoch. 


Speech on the G-ates of Somnath, 






CONTENTS. 


Page 

INTRODUCTION . 1 

The Chicago Exhibition ... ... ... 1 

The History of Swami Vivekananda ... ... 2 

Reprint of the Chicago Address ... ... 9 

Swami Vivekananda’s Address on Hinduism ... ... 9 

GENERAL ESTIMATE OF THE ADDRESS ... 20 

Examination of the Address ... ... ... 21 

Is Hinduism a Religion? ... ... 21 

The Comprehensiveness and Exclusiveness of Hinduism ... 22 

The Tolerance and Intolerance of Hinduism ... 24 

The Vedas ... ... . ... .. ... 25 

Creation ... ... ... 26 

The Soul Eternal ... ... ... .., 28 

Former Births ... ... ... ... 28 

Mental Heredity ... ... ... ... 30 

Recalling the Past ... ... ... 31 

The Soul Infinite ... ... ... ... 32 

The Misery of Existence and Supposed Relief ... 33 

Are Men Sinners ? ... ... ... ... 34 

Was Krishna God incarnate upon Earth ? ... 34 

A Disciple of Krishna ... ... 1 ... ... 35 

The Religion of the Hindus ... ... . ... 35 

Infinite Bliss ... ... ... ... ... 36 

Manifestation, not Creation ... ... ..« 36 

No Polytheism in India ... ... •• ... 37 

Apologies for Idolatry ... ... ... 38 

The SwamPs Logic ... ... ... 43 

Is Hinduism non-persecuting ? ... ... ... 44 

The SwamPs Flabby Notions of Religious Truth ... 45 

HINDUISM UNVEILED. ... 45 

Impurity ... ... ... ••• ... 48 

Cruelty ... ... • ... ... ... 55 



Vlll 


CONTENTS. 


Page 

Injustice ... ... ... ... ... 62 

The Degraded Position of Women ... ... 64 

Paltering with Truth ... ... ... ... 67 

Religion and Morality Divorced ... ... 68 

The Eternal Distinction between Virtue and Vice Denied 68 
Dishonouring Representations op God ... ... 71 

The False Promises op Hinduism ... ... ... 73 

A Thorough Reformation of Hinduism Impossible ... 75 

Dyaush Pitar, the Heaven Father ... ... ... 77 

The True Avatara ... ... ... ... 79 

The Future Religion op India ... ... ... ... 80 

English Publications for Indian Readers ... .,.83 



SWAMI VIVEKANANDA 

ON 

HINDUISM. 


INTRODUCTION. 

The jChicago Exhibition. 

Curiosity is one of the leading features of the human race. 
It is shown even by young children, who sometimes take their 
toys to pieces to see how they are made. When women meet 
at the village well, they ask each other the news of the day. 
The feeling is strongest among educated men. In all the cities 
of civilised countries, there are newspapers, which, by means of 
telegrams, give daily accounts of important events in every part 
of the world. In Athens, a famous city in ancient Europe, many 
of the inhabitants “ spent their time in nothing else but either 
to tell or to hear some new thing.” In their avidity for news, the 
people of the United States most resemble the ancient Athenians. 

The curiosity of educated men extends, more or less, to every 
subject, and to all parts of the world. To afford such information 
there are books, called Encyclopaedias, which treat of every branch 
of learning. Some works of this kind include upwards of twenty 
large volumes. 

Besides reading about foreign countries, intelligent men wish 
to see interesting articles from them. Hence in the chief cities of 
enlightened countries, there are museums for this purpose. One 
of the finest in the world is the British Museum in London, where a 
large building is full of curiosities from every quarter of the globe. 

Occasionally, there are exhibitions, containing such an immense 
variety of objects, that no single building can contain them. The 
first was held in London in 1851, for which the immense Crystal 
Palace was erected. The latest and largest was the “ World’s 
Fair,” held at Chicago in 1893. 

Chicago is situated on the southern shore of Lake Michigan, 
and thus has water communication with a large extent of country. 
Fully oue-third of the railroad system of the United States centres 
there. With these advantages and the enterprise of the people, 
the growth of the city has been marvellous. It was first incorpo¬ 
rated as a city in 1837, when its population was 4170. In 1845 its 
inhabitants increased to 12,088. Since then it has made wonderful 



2 


SWAMI VIVBKANANDA ON HINDUISM. 


strides, although it has twice been devastated by fires. In 1880 the 
population amounted to 503,185; in 1890 it was 1,099,850. It is 
the ambition of the inhabitants that it should become the largest 
city in America. Some of the buildings are of great height, there 
being twelve or more storeys. The Auditorium, shown in the 
frontispiece, a public hall, can seat 7500 people. 

It was the desire of the Americans, and especially of the 
people of Chicago, to have “ the biggest show on earth,” to “ lick 
creation,” and they succeeded. Immense buildings were erected, 
and the number of visitors exceeded 23 millions. 

The Exposition was opened on May 1st, 1893, by President 
Cleveland. He said that the object was to ‘‘illustrate the growth 
and progress of human endeavour in the direction of higher civili¬ 
zation.” There were 13 Departments, subdivided into 176 groups, 
and 967 classes. 

While some of the ablest men from all parts of the world met 
to discuss progress in agriculture, manufactures, science, &c., it 
was thought desirable to have a “ Parliament of Religions,” in 
which representatives from the leading faiths should explain their 
creeds. Christians of the Protestant, Roman Catholic and Greek 
Churches had most delegates; but Judaism, Muhammadanism, 
Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jhe religions of China, 
Shintoism, &c., had also their advocates. The “purpose was not 
to call together the specialists in comparative religion to produce 
learned and critical essays,” but rather to call attention to the 
subject, and to promote kindly feeling. Its success was largely 
due to the Chairman of the Committee, the Rev. John Henry 
Barrows, D. D. A full account of the Proceedings, with very 
numerous illustrations from photography, was afterwards published 
by him in two thick volumes, entitled The World’s Parliament of 
"Religions (London ‘ Review of Reviews’ Office.) No attempt will 
be made to give any summary of this valuable and interesting work, 
which should be consulted by all who have the opportunity. The 
object of the following paper is simply to draw attention to the 
address on Hinduism by Swami Yivekananda. 

The History op Swami Yivekananda, 
or 

Babu Norendra Nath Dutt, B.A. 

A new Type of Sannyasi. 

The Indian Mirror says that “ the name of Swami Yive¬ 
kananda was unknown to the public till he made his debut on the 
platform of the Parliament of Religions at Chicago.” 

A few facts have been gleaned regarding his antecedents. 
His name is Norendra Nath Dutt, and he belongs to a well-known 
Calcutta family, some of whose members are Christians. He is a 


HISTORY OP THE SWAMI. 


3 


comparatively young man, having been born in 1863. He was 
educated at the Church of Scotland Institution, Calcutta, while 
Dr. Hastie was Principal, and took his degree in 1884, without dis¬ 
tinguishing himself in any way. His father was a lawyer, and 
he himself studied law with a view to practice ; but he relinquished 
his design. 

The Indian Mirror says : “ He used to attend divine services 
held in the Brail mo churches, and was one of the actors oh the 
stage which was erected at the house of the late Babu Keshab 
Chunder Sen to represent a religious drama.” He also sang hymns 
in one of the Brahmo Samajes of Calcutta. But he was especially 
influenced by the Paramahansa* Ramkrishna. Babu P. C. Mo- 
zoomdar, in his life of Keshub Chunder Sen, thus refers to him:— 

“ Some time in the year 1876, in a suburban garden at Belgharia, 
a singular incident took place. There came one morning in a rickety 
ticca gari (hired carriage) a disorderly looking young man, insufficiently 
clad, and with manners less than insufficient. He was introduced as 
Ramkrishna, the Paramhansa (great devotee) of Dakshineshwar. His 
appearance was so unpretending and simple, and he spoke so little at his 
introduction, that we did not take much notice of him at first. But 
soon he began to discourse in a sort of half delirious state, becoming now 
and then quite unconscious. What he said, however, was so profound 
and beautiful that we soon perceived he was no ordinary man. The 
acquaintance of this devotee, which soon matured into intimate friend¬ 
ship, had a powerful effect upon Keshub’s catholic mind. The very first 
thing observable in the Paramhansa was the intense tenderness with 
which he cherished the conception of God as Mother. To him the 
female principle in the Hindu idea of Godhead, Shakti, the incarnation 
of force, popularly called Kali, was the Mother Supreme....Keshub’s 
own trials and sorrows about the time of the Cuch Bihar marriage had 
spontaneously suggested to him the necessity of regarding God as 
Mother. And now the sympathy, friendship, and example of the Param¬ 
hansa converted the Motherhood of God into a subject of special culture 
with him.” pp. 357-359. 

The Old Type of Sannyasi.—One of the highest ideals of reli¬ 
gion among Hindus is the Sannyasi, the abandoner of worldly 
concerns, who wanders about from shrine to shrine, depending 
upon alms for his support. There are various classes of them. 
The picture represents a Siva ascetic, with dishevelled hair, smeared 
with ashes, and scantily clad. Sqme used to go about perfectly 
naked ; but British police regulations now interfere with this. A 

* Paramahansa literally means great goose, or flamingo, the goose being taken as 
an emblem of the soul. Mahatma expresses the same meaning, great soul. Monier 
Williams gives the following explanation of the term :— 

“ The theory is that a Hindu who aims at perfection ought to go through six 
successive courses of austerity (tapas) for twelve years each, rising by degrees op 
to the highest order of all—the Paramahansa, who is supposed to be wholly 
absorbed in meditating on Brahman, and to do nothing else whatever.”— Brahmanism 
and Hinduism , p. 87. 



4 


SWAMI VIVEKANANDA ON HINDUISM, 



yellow coloured dress is tlie distinguishing mark of some. About 
1889, the influence of the Paramabansa induced several Bengalis, 
including among them a few graduates, to become sannyasis, one of 
whom was Norendra Nath Dutt. The title of Swami (lord) is 
properly applied to religious teachers of the highest grade, like 
Swami Dayanand Saraswati, founder of the Arya Samaj. The 


AN OLD TYPE OP SANNYASI. 










HISTORY OF THE SWAMI. 


5 


Indian Nation says : “ Swami Vivekenanda is, we take it, the holy- 
disguise of a name that is Bengali, but we are not given to un¬ 
derstand by what authority it was, whose the ‘ breath’ that caused 
the elevation to a peerage of sanctity.”* 

The Swami, a new Type of Sannyasis. —The old style of 
Sannyasis has been described. The Swami has initiated a new 
order, becoming the Neo-Hinduism, or new Hinduism, which is 
now making some progress in India. As America is sometimes 
called the f New World’, it was a fitting scene for its manifestation. 

The Swami wisely retains the yellow robe of the sannyasi; 
but, as quotations will hereafter show, his turban is pronounced 
“ gorgeous,” while his robe “ alternates in a bright orange and red 
crimson.” But here the parallel ends. An incident that occurred 
shows the truth of Tennyson’s remark, 

“ The old order changeth, yielding place to new.” 

The New York Independent says that at Baltimore the Swami 
“ was refused admission to every first class hotel to which he 
applied but one.” The servants in American hotels are generally 
negroes, who at Baltimore seem to have regarded the Swami as a 
“ cullud pusson” (coloured person) like themselves. 

The above shows that the Swami was in the habit of frequent¬ 
ing first class hotels. At Baltimore he seems to have tried them all 
rather than go to a second or third class establishment. Travellers 
know that American “ first class hotels” are like palaces, with 
every luxury, but correspondingly expensive. 

The Swami availed himself of the accommodation of “ first 
class hotels.” Did he eschew their delicacies and remain a vege¬ 
tarian ? Chicago is noted for its pork : did he leave the city with¬ 
out once tasting it ? Was he not tempted by the savoury roast 
beef ? Did he abstain from wine? What does the Swami think 
of the quality of Havannah cigars ? 

The Swami may make two replies to such impertinent 
questions: 

1. He may say that if he ate beef, he was only following the 
example of the ancients, including some of the most celebrated 
Rishis. 

Panini explains Goghna as one for whom a cow is killed, that 
is a guest. III. 4. 73. Beef in Vedic times was a favorite food, and 
eaten by all. Dr. Rajendralala Mitra, in “ Beef in Ancient India,” 
quotes overwhelming testimony in support of this.f 

Suppose the Swami did drink wine, he was only imitating 
Indra, the chief of the Yedic gods, and Baladeva or Balarama, the 

* March, 26th 1894. 

f See Indo - Aryans , Vol. I. pp. 354-388. An abBtraet of it is given in The Cow 
Question in India , Price 1| As. Post>fj?ee, 2. As. Sold by Mr. A. T. Scott, Tract 
Depot, Madras. 



6 


SWAMI VIVEKANANDA ON HINDUISM. 


incarnation of tlie white hair of Vishnu, and the brother of Lord 
Sri Ram Krishna, both of whom were topers. For proof refer to the 
Rig Veda and Vishnu Purana. 

2. The Swami may answer that such questions are irrelevant. 
He is now styled a “ Paramahansa,” and like the Swami of Akul- 
hoti, he can eat beef and drink brandy, without prejudice to his 
sanctity. With “ the Lord Sri Ram Krishna,” in the Bhagavad Gita, 
he can say, “ Actions defile me not.”* No prayaschitta ceremony 
will be necessary on the part of the Swami when he returns to 
India. He will not require to become in the words of the late 
Hon. Kristo Das Pal, “an imbecile swallower of penitential pills.” 

It would be interesting to know the Swamf’s expenses at “first 
class hotels.” Was it all met by his Indian admirers? Did the 
Swami raise any money among the Americans who are noted for 
their liberality ? If so, for what objects was it given ? 

The Indian Nation heads an article, “Protean Hinduism.” 
Proteus was a sea god of the ancient Greeks, who, like Hanuman, 
and some other Indian divinities, could assume any form he 
pleased. Sannyasis show the same capabilities. 

Causes of the Swami’s Popularity in America.—About 
this there is no question. The Swami undoubtedly attracted crowds 
both to listen and shake hands with him. There are differences 
of opinion, however, with regard to its origin. 

The theory of The Indian Mirror is that the Swami afforded 
the spiritual nutriment required to “ satisfy the famishing souls of 
the American people.” In compassion to them, he makes the 
following suggestion : 

“We are constrained to think, having regard to the impression 
Swami Vivekananda has created in America, that a man like him would 
be more useful as a religious preacher in the grossly materialistic West 
than in India. We are told that two wealthy Zemindars of Madras have 
borne the cost of Vivekananda’s voyage to Chicago, and we call the atten¬ 
tion of these benevolent gentlemen to the fact that if they can arrange for 
a prolonged stay of the Swami in America, in order that he may preach 
the sublime doctrines of what we may call the higher Hinduism, Christen¬ 
dom will come to realize its gross ignorance of the Hindu religion, and 
the Hindus all gradually come to be regarded in a just light by the -i 
people of the West.” 

While the editor of the Indian Mirror considers that the 
people of America are thirsting for the “ higher Hinduism,” some 
Japanese are equally confident that it is Buddhism which they 
need to “ satisfy their famishing souls.” The Indian Messenger I 
quotes the following from an English exchange :— 

“ A surprising account of the effect of the Parliament of Religions 
at the Chicago Exposition is given by a Japanese Buddhist to his 


* Book IV. 14. 





HISTORY OP THE SWAMI. 


7 


co-religionists on liis return from Chicago. He says that while the 
parliament was undertaken in the interest of Christianity, it resulted, 
contrariwise, in displaying the glory of Buddhism. So strongly has 
America been impressed with the revelation of the inferiority of Chris¬ 
tianity, that Buddhist temples and images are now being erected in many 
places on the Pacific coast. He adds that in Europe, also, Christianity is 
decaying, and Buddhism gaining ground and showing promise of supplant¬ 
ing Christianity. ‘ The people of Europe are indeed eager,’ he says, ‘ for 
the coming of Buddhist priests of Japan.’ Ludicrous as this sounds, it 
is merely a case of the familiar fact that people see what they desire 
to see.” Nov. 11th, 1894. 

Mohammed Alexander Russell Webb was able to persuade 
some wealthy Muhammadans in India that what America needed 
for its spiritual regeneration was Islam. That bubble has burst, 
leaving its dupes, sadder and wiser men. The wealthy Zemindars of 
Madras will, in course of time, be similarly disillusioned, and doubt 
how much dharma will accrue to them from a sanniyasi living at 
‘ first class hotels.’ 

It is admitted that several causes contributed to the popu¬ 
larity of the Swami in America; as his pleasing address, his 
Bengali fluency as an orator, his command of English, his judicious 
silence on some points, his claiming some important Christian 
doctrines as Hindu. The main cause, however, was curiosity , of 
which, it has been said, that the Americans have such an abund¬ 
ant supply. 

Any great novelty attracts attention. Crowds would flock 
to see a tattooed New Zealander, with stone hatchet in his hand, 
going through the war dance. The Swami was the first Indian 
who visited America in the dress of a sannyasi. An American 
l journal thus announces his visit: “ Swami Vivekananda is coming 
j to Boston in all the glory of his gorgeous orange turban.” Another 
paper says: “ His finely poised head is crowned with either a 
lemon-coloured or a red turban, and his cassock (not the technical 
name for his garment), belted in at the waist, and falling below 
the knees, alternates in a bright orange and rich crimson.” 

The Swami judiciously varies his costume. In an account of 
an address which he delivered at Brooklyn, it is said “ he presented 
a very picturesque appearance when he stood up to deliver his 
lecture. He was attired in Oriental garb, consisting of a scarlet 
robe of soft cloth, which reached below the knee, and bound 
round the waist with a crimson girdle. On his head was a turban 
of white silk, which set off to advantage the swarthy complexion 
of his cleanly shaven face.”* 


* Quoted in The Hindu , March 22, 1895. 





SWAMI VIVEKANANDA ON HINDUISM. 


a 


His greatest admirers were women. The Chicago Daily Interior 
Ocean says:— 

“ Great crowds of people, the most of whom were women, pressed 
around the doors leading to the hall of Columbus, an hour before the 
time stated for opening the afternoon session, for it had been announced 
that Swami Vdvekananda the popular Hindu Monk, who looks so much 
like McCullough’s Othello, was to speak. Ladies, ladies everywhere filled 
the great auditorium.* 

The Indian Mirror says : <c In going in and coming out of the 
building, he was daily beset by hundreds of women who almost 
fought with each other for a chance to get near him, and shake his 
hand.” Nov. 30, 1894. 

* These crowds of ladies knew little of Hinduism ; the main attrac¬ 
tion was his dress, to which ladies attach so much importance. 
There is also a well known Indian fable showing its influence. A 
fox having fallen into an indigo vat, come out of a brilliant blue 
colour, and claimed to be the king of beasts. Lions and other 
animals all paid him homage, till his origin was discovered. There 
were two Bengalis at the Parliament of Religions, the Swami and 
Babu Partab Chunder Mozoomdar. The former attracted crowds; 
the latter, the friend and biographer of Keshub Chunder Sen, a 
much abler man, and favourably known as a writer and speaker, 
was comparatively unnoticed. What was the chief cause of this 
difference ? The former appeared in the yellow robe of a sannyasi; 
the latter wore the ordinary European dress, as shown in their 
portraits given in The World’s Parliament of Religions, pp. 973 
and 849. Had the Swami been dressed like Mr. Mozoomdar, he 
would have attracted much less attention. 

The Swami’s Popularity in India. —The Swami has sud¬ 
denly become famous in his own country. Large public meetings 
have been held to do honour to “ Paramahansa SwamiVivekananda.” 
Glowing panegyrics have appeared about him in The Indian Mirror . 
Among other things he is credited “ with the grand spirit of 
vairagya which distinguished the Rishis of old.” A vairagi is-an 
ascetic who professes to be indifferent to all worldly things. A 
“ Paramahansa,” as already explained, denotes one supposed to be 
wholly absorbed in meditating on Brahman, and to do nothing else 
whatever.” Let the reader judge from the foregoing how far 
such epithets apply to the Swami. 

The Sawmi, for some years, was a professed Bramho. Unity 
and the Minister, the official organ of the section to which he 
belonged, thus describes him and replies to The Indian Mirror :— 

“ The Indian Mirror has. published several long leaders in praise of 
the Neo-Hindu Babu Norendra Nath Dutt, alias Yivekananda, in some of 


f Quoted in the Madras reprint of the Address, p. 23. 




ADDRESS OP THE SWAMI. 


9 


its late issues. We have no objection to the publication of such panegy* 
rics on the Sanyasi but since the time he came to us to act on 
the stage of the Nava-vindavan theatre or sang hymns in one of the 
Brahmo Somajes of this city, we knew him so well that no amount of 
newspaper writing could throw any new light on our estimate of his 
character. We are glad that our old friend lately created a good impres¬ 
sion in America by his speeches, but we are aware that Neo-Hinduism, 
of which our friend is a representative, is not orthodox Hinduism. The 
last thing which the latter would do is to “cross the halapani, partake of 
the mlechha food, and smoke endless cigars and the like. Any follower 
of modern Hinduism cannot command that respect from us which we 
entertain for a genuine orthodox Hindu. Our contemporary may try to 
do his best to promote the reputation of Vivekananda, but we cannot 
have patience with him when be publishes glaring nonsense.” 

The reception that the Swami met with in America was 
gratifying to national pride. Astute men, who saw through the 
holiness of his pretensions, joined in the chorus of adulation, 
because, in a political point of view, it would be advantageous. 

* Reprint op the Chicago Address. 

Before making some remarks on the address of the Swami, 
in justice to him it will be quoted in full. Permission has kindly 
been given by the Rev. Dr. J.*B. Barrows to reprint it from the 
“ Report of the Parliament of Religions.” A few typographical 
misprints have been corrected. There have been two Madras 
editions,* revised by the author. Some grammatical mistakes in 
the Chicago edition have been corrected, and the sense in some 
passages has been made clearer. These have generally been 
adopted. For easy reference, the Madras headings, not found in 
the original, have been introduced. The Madras editions contain 
also a few omissions and additions. These have been noticed when 
of some importance. 

HINDUISM. 

By Swami Vivekananda. 

Three religions stand now in the world which have come down 
to us from time prehistoric—Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, and 
Judaism. 

These all have received tremendous shocks, and all of them 
prove by their survival their internal strength, but while Judaism 
failed to absorb Christianity and was driven out of its place of birth 
by its all-conquering daughter, and a handful of Parsis are all that 
remains to tell the tale of their grand religion, sect after sect arose 

# Published by Y, Kalyanararna Iyer, Madras, 2nd Ed., 1 Anna. 

2 



10 


SWAMI VIVEKANANDA ON HINDUISM. 


in India and seemed to shake the religion of the Vedas to its very 
foundations; but, like the waters of the seashore in a tremendous 
earthquake, it receded only for a while, again to return in an all- 
absorbing flood, (a thousand times more vigorous,)* and when the 
tumult of the rush was over these sects were all sucked in, absorbed 
and assimilated in the immense body of the mother faith. 

From the high spiritual flights of Vedantic philosophy, of 
which the latest discoveries of science seem like echoes, from the 
agnosticism of the Buddhists and the atheism of the Jains to the 
low ideas of idolatry and the multifarious mythologies, each and all 
have a place in the Hindu’s religion. 

Where then, the question arises, where is the common centre 
to which all these widely diverging radii converge ? Where is the 
common basis upon which all these seemingly hopeless contradic¬ 
tions rest ? And this is the question which I shall attempt to 
answer. 

About the Vedas. 

The Hindus have received their religion ^through the revela-' 
tion of the Vedas. They hold that the Vedas are without begin¬ 
ning and without end. It may sound ludicrous to this audience 
how a book can be without beginning or end. But by the Vedas 
no books are meant. They mean the accumulated treasury of 
spiritual laws discovered by different persons in different times. 
Just as the law of gravitation existed before its discovery and 
would exist if all humanity forgot it, so it is with the laws that 
govern the spiritual world. The moral, ethical, and spiritual relations 
between soul and soul, and between individual spirits and the 
Father of all spirits, were there before their discovery, and would 
remain even if we forgot them. 

The discoverers of these laws are called Rishis, and we honor 
them as perfected beings. I am glad to tell this audience that some 
of the very best of them were women. 

Here it may be said that these laws as laws may be without 
end, but they must have had a beginning. The Vedas teach us 
that creation is without beginning or end. Science has proved to 
us that the sum total of the cosmic energy is the same throughout 
all time. Then, if there was a time when nothing existed, where 
was all this manifested energy ? Some say it was in a potential 
form in God. But then God is sometimes potential and sometimes 
kinetic, which would make him mutable, and everything mutable 
is a compound, and everything compound must undergo that change 
which is called destruction. Therefore God would die. Therefore, 
there never was a time when there was no creation. 


* Omitted in the Madras edition, 





THE SWAMPS CHICAGO ADDRESS. 


11 


If I may be allowed to apply a simile, creation and creator are 
two lines, without beginning and without end, running parallel to 
each other, and God is power, an ever-active providence, under 
whose power systems after systems, are being evolved out of chaos, 
made to run for a time and again destroyed. This is what the 
Hindu boy repeats every day with his Guru: “The sun and the 
moon, the Lord created after other suns and moons.” And this 
agrees with science. 


Defines Existence. 

Here I stand, and if I shut my eyes and try to conceive my 
existence, “1,” “I,” “ I,” what is the idea before me ? The idea 
of a body. Am I, then, nothing but a combination of matter and 
material substances ? The Vedas declare, “No.” I am a spirit 
living in a body. I am not the body. The body will die, but I will 
not die. Here am I in this body, and when it will fall still will I go 
on living. Also I had a past. The soul was not created from nothing, 
for creation means a combination, and that means a certain future 
dissolution. If, then, the soul was created, it must die. Therefore, 
it was not cheated. Some are born happy enjoying perfect health 
with beautiful body, mental vigor, and with all wants supplied. 
Others are born miserable. Some are without hands or feet, some are 
idiots and only drag on a miserable existence. Why, if they are all 
created, why does a just and merciful God create one happy and the 
other unhappy ? Why is He so partial ? Nor would it mend matters 
in the least to hold that those who are miserable in this life will 
be perfect in a future life. Why should a man be miserable even 
here in the reign of a just and merciful God ? 

In the second place such an idea does not give us any cause, but 
simply the cruel fiat of an all-powerful being, and therefore 
unscientific. There must have been causes, then, to make a man 
miserable or happy before his birth, and those were his past 
actions. Are not all the tendencies of the mind and body accounted 
for by inherited aptitude from parents ? Here are the two parallel 
lines of existence—one that of the mind—the other that of matter. 

Mental Heredity. 

If matter and its transformation answer for all that we have, 
there is no necessity for supposing the existence of a soul. But it 
cannot be proved that thought has been evolved out of matter, 
and if a philosophical monism is inevitable, spiritual monism is 
certainly logical and no less desirable; but neither of these is 
necessary here. 

We cannot deny that bodies inherit certain tendencies from 
heredity, but those tendencies only mean the physical configuration 


12 


SWAMI VlVEKANANDA ON HINDUISM. 


through which a peculiar mind alone can act in a peculiar way. 
The peculiar tendencies in any soul have been caused by its 
past actions. A soul with a certain tendency will take birth in 
a body which is the fittest instrument for the display of that tendency 
by the laws of affinity. And this is in perfect accord with science, 
for science wants to explain everything by habit, and habit is got 
through repetitions. So these repetitions are also necessary to 
explain the natural habits of a new-born soul. They were not got 
in this present life; therefore, they must have come down from 
past lives. 


Recalling the Past. 

But there is another suggestion : taking all these for granted, 
how is it that I do not remember anything of my past life ? This 
can be easily explained. I am now speaking English. It is not 
my mother tongue, in fact no words of my mother tongue are 
present in my consciousness; but let me try to bring them up, they 
rush into my consciousness. That shows that consciousness is the 
name only of the surface of the mental ocean, and within its depths 
are stored up all our experiences. Try and struggle, ajid they will 
come up, and you will be conscious even of the experiences of a 
past life. 

This is direct and demonstrative evidence. Verification is the 
perfect proof of a theory, and here is the challenge thrown to the 
world by the Rishis. We have discovered the secrets by which 
the very depths of the ocean of memory can be stirred up—try it* 
and you will get a complete reminiscence of your past life. 

So then the Hindu believes that he is a spirit. Him the fire 
cannot burn, him the water cannot melt, him the air cannot dry. 
The Hindu believes that every soul is a circle whose circumference 
is nowhere but whose centre is located in a body, and that death 
means the change of this centre from body to body. Nor is the 
soul bound by the conditions of matter. In its very essence' it is 
free, unbounded, holy, and pure, and perfect. But somehow or 
other it has got itself tied down to matter, and thinks itself as 
matter. 

Why should the free, perfect, and pure being be thus under 
the thraldom of matter is the next question. How can the perfect 
soul be deluded into the belief that he is imperfect ? We have been 
told that the Hindus shirk the question and say that no such ques¬ 
tion can be there. Some thinkers want to answer the question by 
the supposing of one or more quasi-perfect beings, and use big 
scientificf names to fill up the gap. But naming is not explaining. 
The question remains the same. How can the perfect become the 

* Madras edition, “follow them” f Madras edition ‘ technical.* 



THE! SWAMPS CHICAGO ADDKHSS. 


VS 

quasi-perfect; how can the pure the absolute, change even a 
microscopic particle of its nature ? But the Hindu is more sincere. 
He does not want to take shelter under sophistry. He is brave 
enough to face the question in a manly fashion. And his answer is, 
"I do not know.” I do not know how the perfect being, the soul, 
came to think of itself as imperfect, as joined to and conditioned 
by matter. But the fact is a fact for all that. It is a fact in every¬ 
body's consciousness that he thinks himself as the body. We do 
not attempt to explain why I am, why I am in this body. The 
answer that it is the will of God is no explanation. This is nothing 
more than what they say themselves, “ We do not know.” 

Soul is Eternal. 

Well, then, the human soul is eternal and immortal, perfect 
and infinite, and death means only a change of centre from one 
body to another. The present is determined by our past actions, 
and the future will be by the present. The soul will go on evolving 
up or reverting back from birth to birth and death to death. But 
here is another question ;* is man a tiny boat in a tempest, raised 
one moment on the foaming crest of a billow and dashed down into 
a yawning chasm the next, rolling to and fro at the mercy of good 
and bad actions—a powerless, helpless wreck in an ever-raging, 
ever-rushing, uncompromising current of cause and effect; a little 
moth placed under the wheel of causation which rolls on, crushing 
everything in its way, and waits not for the widow's tears or the 
orphan's cry ? 

The heart sinks at this idea, yet this is the law of nature. Is 
there no hope ? Is there no escape ? was the cry that went up from 
the bottom of the heart of despair. It reached the throne of mercy, 
and words of hope and consolation came down and inspired a 
Yedic sage, and he stood up before the world and in trumpet voice 
proclaimed the glad tidings to the world : “ Hear, ye children of 
immortal bliss, even ye that reside in higher spheres, I have found 
the Ancient One, who is beyond all darkness, all delusion, and 
knowing Him alone you shall be saved from death over again.” 

“ Children of immortal bliss,” what a sweet, what a hopeful name ! 
Allow me to call you, brethren, by that sweet name—heirs of 
immortal bliss—yea, the Hindu refuses to call you sinners. 

Children op God. 

Ye are the children of God, the sharers of immortal bliss, holy 
and perfect beings. Ye, divinities on earth, sinners? It is a sin to 
call a man so: it is a standing libel on human nature. Come up 


* Omitted in the Madras edition, hi which the interrogative form is not used. 




14 


SWAMI VIVEEANANDA ON HINDUISM. 


0! lions and shake off the delusion that you are sheep ; you are 
souls immortal, spirits free and blest and eternal; ye are not 
matter, ye are not bodies. Matter is your servant, not you the 
servant of matter. 

Thus it is that the Vedas proclaim, not a dreadful combi¬ 
nation of unforgiving laws, not an endless prison of cause and 
effect, but that at the head of all these* laws, in and through every 
particle of matter and force, stands One “ through whose command 
the wind blows, the fire burns, the clouds rain, and death stalks 
upon the earth.” And what is His nature ? 

He is everywhere, the pure and formless One, the Al¬ 
mighty and the All-merciful. “ Thou art our father, Thou art our 
mother, Thou art beloved friend, Thou art the source of all 
strength: (Give us strength.)t Thou art He that beareth the 
burdens of the universe; help me bear the little burden of this 
life.’^ Thus sang the Rishis of the Veda. And how are we to 
worship Him ? Through love. “ He is to be worshipped as the 
one beloved, dearer than every thing in this and the next life.” 

This is the doctrine of love preached in the Vedas, and let us 
see how it is fully developed and preached by Krishna, whom the 
Hindus believe to have been God incarnate on earth. 


Krishna’s Teaching. 

He taught that a man ought to live in this world like a lotus 
leaf, which grows in water but is never moistened by water—so 
a man ought to live in this world—his heart to God and his hands 
to work. 

It is good to love God for hope of reward in this or the next world, 
but it is better to love God for love’s sake, and the prayer goes, 
“ Lord, I do not want wealth, nor children, nor learning. If it be 
thy will I will go to a hundred hells, but grant me this, that I may 
love thee without the hope of reward—unselfishly love for love’s 
sake.” One of the disciples of Krishna, the then Emperor of India, 
was driven from his throne by his enemies, and had to take shelter 
in a forest in the Himalayas with his queen, and there one day the 
queen was asking him how it was that he, the most virtuous of men, 
should suffer so much misery, and Yudhisthira answered : “ Behold, 
my queen, the Himalayas, how beautiful they are. I love them. 
They do not give me anything, but my nature is to love the grand, 
the beautiful; therefore I love them. Similarly, I love the Lord. 
He is the source of all beauty, of all sublimity. He is the only 
object to be loved. My nature is to love him, and therefore I love. 
I do not pray for anything, I do not ask for anything. Let him 


* Madras edition “natural . 3 


t Omitted in Madras edition. 



THE SWAMl’s CHICAGO ADDRESS. 15 

place me wherever he likes. I must love him for love’s sake. I 
cannot trade in love.” 

Soul is Divine. 

The Vedas teach that the soul is divine, only held here under 
the bondage of matter, and that perfection will be reached by it 
when this bond shall burst, and the word they use for this perfec¬ 
tion is, therefore, Mukti—freedom—freedom from the bonds of 
imperfection, freedom from death and misery. 

And this bondage can only fall off through the mercy of God, 
and this mercy comes to the pure. So purity is the condition of 
His mercy. How that mercy acts ! He reveals himself to the pure 
heart, and the pure and stainless man sees God, yea even in this 
life, and then, and then only, all the crookedness of the heart is 
made straight. Then all doubt ceases. Man is no more the freak 
of a terrible law of causation. So this is the very centre, the very 
vital conception of Hinduism. The Hindu does not want to live 
upon words and theories. If there are existences beyond the 
ordinary sensual existence, he wants to come face to face with them. 
If there is a soul in him which is not matter, if there is an all- 
merciful Universal Soul, he will go to Him direct. He must see 
Him and that alone can destroy all doubts. So the best proof a 
Hindu sage gives, about the soul, about God, is, “ I have seen the 
soul, I have seen God.” And that is the only condition of perfec¬ 
tion. The Hindu religion does not consist in struggles and 
attempts to believe a certain doctrine or dogma, but in realizing— 
not in believing, but in being and becoming. 

The Religion op the Hindus. 

So the whole struggle in their system is a constant struggle 
to become perfect, to become divine, to reach God, and see God, 
and in thus reaching God, seeing God, and becoming perfect, even 
as the Father in Heaven is perfect, constitutes the religion of the 
Hindus. 

And what becomes of man when he becomes perfect? He 
lives a life of bliss, infinite. He enjoys infinite and perfect bliss, 
having obtained the only thing in which man ought to have pleasure 
—God— a nd enjoys the bliss with God, 

So far all the Hindus are agreed. This is the common religion 
of all the sects of India, but then the question comes—perfection 
is absolute, and the absolute cannot be two or three. It cannot 
have any qualities. It cannot be an individual. And so when a 
soul becomes perfect and absolute, it must become one with Brahma, 
and such a soul would only realize the Lord as the perfection, the 
reality, of its own nature and existence—existence absolute, know- 


16 


SWAMI VIVEKANANDA ON HINDUISM. 


ledge absolute, and life absolute. We have often and often read 
about this being called the losing of individuality as in becoming a 
stock or a stone. “ He jests at scars that never felt a wound.” 

I tell you it is nothing of the kind. If it is happiness to enjoy 
the consciousness of this small body, it must be more happiness to 
enjoy the consciousness of two bodies, so three, four, or five—and 
the aim, the ultimate of happiness would be reached when it would 
become a universal consciousness. 

Infinite Individuality. 

Therefore, to gain this infinite universal individuality, this 
miserable little (prison)* individuality, must go. Then alone can 
death cease, when I am one with life. Then alone can misery 
cease when I am one with happiness itself. Then alone can all 
errors cease when I am one with knowledge itself. And this is a 
necessary scientific conclusion. Science has proved to me that 
physical individuality is a delusion, that really my body is one 
little continuously changing body, in an unbroken ocean of matter, 
and adwaitism is thus the necessary conclusion in regard to my 
other counterpart, mind. 

Science is nothing but the finding of unity, and as soon as any 
science can reach the perfect unity, it must stop from further 
progress, because it will then have reached the goal. Thus, 
chemistry cannot progress farther when it shall have discovered one 
element out of which all others can be made. Physics will stop 
when it becomes able to discover the one energy of which all 
others are but manifestations. The science of religion became 
perfect when it discovered Him who is the one life in a universe of 
death, who is the constant basis of an ever-changing world, who is 
the only soul of which all souls are but (delusive)* manifestations. 
Thus (was it) through multiplicity and duality the ultimate unity 
was reached, and religion can go no farther. And this is the 
goal of all, (again and again, science after science, again and 
again.)* 

Manifestation, Not Creation. 

And all science is bound to come to this conclusion in the long 
run. Manifestation, and not creation, is the word of science to-day, 
and the Hindu is only glad that what he has cherished in his 
bosom for ages is going to be taught in more forcible language 
and with further light by the latest conclusions of science. 

Descend we now from the aspirations of philosophy to the 
religion of the ignorant. At the very outset, I may tell you that 


* Omitted in Madras edition. 






THE CHICAGO ADDRESS. 


17 


there is no polytheism in India. In every temple, if one stands by 
and listens, one will find the worshippers apply all the attributes 
of God—including omnipresence—to these images. This is not 
polytheism, (neither would the name henotheism* answer our ques¬ 
tion.) “ The rose called by any other name would smell as sweet.” 
Names are not explanations. 

I remember when a boy a Christian man was preaching to a 
crowd in India. Among other sweet things he was asking the 
people, if he gave a blow to their idol with his stick, what could 
it do ? One of his hearers sharply answered, “ If I abuse your 
God what can he do V* “ You will be punished,” said the preacher, 
“ when you die.” “ So my idol will punish you when you die,” 
said the villager. 

The tree is known by its fruits, and when I have seen amongst 
them that are called idolaters, men the like of whom in morality and 
spirituality and love I have never seen anywhere, I stop and ask 
myself, “ Can sin beget holiness ?” | 

Bigotry Denounced* 

Superstition is the enemy of man, but bigotry is worse. 
Why does a Christian go to church ? Why is the cross holy ? 
Why is the face turned toward the sky in prayer ? Why are 
there so many images in the Catholic Church ? Why are there so 
many images in the minds of Protestants when they pray ? My 
brethren, we can no more think about anything without a material 
image than we can live without breathing. And by the law 
of association the material image calls the mental idea up and vice 
versa. Omnipresence, to almost the whole world, means nothing. 
His God superficial area ? If not, when we repeat the word we 
think of the extended earth; that is all. 

As we find that somehow or other, by the laws of our consti¬ 
tution, we have got to associate our ideas of infinity with the 
image of the blue sky, or of the sea, some connect naturally 
their idea of holiness, with the image of a church or a mosque 
or a cross. The Hindus have associated the ideas of holiness, 
purity, truth, omnipresence, and all other such ideas with 
different images and forms. But with this difference. Some 
others devote their whole lives to their idol of a church and never 
rise higher, because with them religion means an intellectual 
assent to certain doctrines and doing good to their fellows. The 
whole religion of the Hindu is, however, centred in reali¬ 
zation. Man is to become divine by realizing the divine, and, 

* From henos, one, Theos, God. A word, coined by Max Muller, to denote the wor¬ 
ship of one God who is worshipped without reference to other gods supposed to exist. 
Omitted in Madras edition. 

3 




18 


SWAMI V1VEKANANDA ON HINDUISM. 


therefore, idol or temple or church or books, are only the supports, 
the helps, of his spiritual childhood : but on and on he must 
progress. 

No Stopping Anywhere. 

He must not stop any where. “ External worship, material 
worship,” says the Veda, “is the lowest stage, struggling to rise 
high, mental prayer is the next stage, but the highest stage is when 
the Lord has been realized.” Mark, the same earnest man who is 
kneeling before the idol tells you, “ Him the sun cannot express, 
nor the moon, nor the stars, the lightning caunot express him, nor 
the fire; through him they all shine.” (But with this difference)* 
He does not abuse the image or call it sinful. He recognizes in 
it a necessary stage of his life. “ The child is father of the man.” 
Would it be right for the old man to say that childhood is a sin or 
youth a sin ? Nor is image-worship compulsory in Hinduism. 

If a man can realize Jus divine nature most easily with the 
help of an image, would it be right to call it a sin? Nor, even 
when he has passed that stage, should he call it an error. To the 
Hindu, man is not travelling from error to truth, but from truth to 
truth, from lower to higher truth. To him all the religions, from 
the lowest fetishism to the highest absolutism, mean so many 
attempts of the human soul to grasp and realize the Infinite, each 
determined by the conditions ot‘ its birth and association; and each 
of these religions, therefore, marks a stage of progress, and every 
soul is a child-eagle soaring higher and higher, gathering more and 
more strength till it reaches the Glorious Sun. 

Dogmas and Pegs. 

Unity in variety is the plan of nature, and the Hindu has 
recognized it. Other religions lay down certain fixed dogmas, and 
try to force society to adopt them. They place before society only 
one kind of coat which must fit Jack and John and Henry, all alike. 
If it does not fit John or Henry he must go without a coat to cover 
his body. The Hindus have discovered that the absolute can only 
be realized, or thought of, or stated, through the relative, and the 
images, cross or crescent, are simply so many centres, so many pegs 
to hang the spiritual ideas on. It is not that this help is necessary 
for every one, and those that do not need it have no right to say 
that it is wrong in any way ivith those who need it .t 

One thing I must tell you. Idolatry in India does not mean 
anything horrible. It is not the mother of harlots. On the other 
hand, it is the attempt of undeveloped minds to grasp high spiritual 
truths. The Hindus have their own faults, (they sometimes have 


* Omitted in Madras edition. 


t Added in the Madras edition. 




THE CHICAGO ADDEESS. 


19 


their exceptions);* but mark this, they are always for punishing their 
own bodies and never for cutting the throats of their neighbours. 
If the Hindu fanatic burns himself on the pyre, he does not light 
the fire of inquisition. And even this (weakness of his)t cannot be 
laid at the door of religion any more than the burning of witches 
can be laid at the door of Christianity. 

To the Hindu, then, the whole world of religions is only a trav¬ 
elling, a coming up of different men and women, through various 
conditions and circumstances, to the same goal. Every religion is 
only an evolution, out of the material man, of a God—and the same 
God is the inspirer of all of them. Why, then, are there so many 
contradictions ? They are only apparent, says the Hindu. The 
contradictions come from the same truth adapting itself to the 
different circumstances of different natures. 

God in all Religions. 

It is the same light coming through different colors. And 
these little variations are necessary for purposes of adaptation. 
But in the heart of everything the same truth reigns. The Lord has 
declared to the Hindu in his incarnation as Krishna, “ I am in every 
religion as the thread through a string of pearls. And wherever thou 
seest extraordinary holiness and extraordinary power raising and 
purifying humanity, know thou that I am there.” And what is the 
result of such teaching ? Through the whole order of Sanskrit 
philosophy, I challenge anybody to find any such expression as is 
intended to declare that the Hindu alone will be saved and not 
others. Says Vyas, “ We find perfect men even beyond the pale of 
our caste and creed/’ One thing more. How, then, can the 
Hindu whose whole idea centres in God believe in the Buddhism 
which is agnostic, or in the Jainism which is atheistic, you may ask. 

The Buddhists do not depend upon God; but the whole force 
of their religion is directed to the great central truth in every 
religion, to evolve a God out of man. They have not seen the 
Father, but they have seen the Son. And he that hath seen the 
Son hath seen the Father. 

This, brethren, is a short sketch of the religious ideas of the 
Hindus. The Hindu may have failed to carry out all his plans ; 
but if there is ever to be a universal religion, it must be that one 
which will have no location in place or time ; which will be infinite, 
like the God it will reach ; whose sun will shine upon the followers 
of Krishna or Christ, saints or sinners, alike : which will not be the 
Brahmin’s or the Buddhist’s, the Christian’s or the Mahommedan’s 
religion, but be the sum total of all these, and still have infinite 
space for development; which in its catholicity will embrace in its 


* Omitted in Madras edition. 


f Added in Madras edition. 



20 


SWAMI VIVEKANANDA ON HINDUISM. 


infinite arms, and find a place for every human being, from the 
lowest grovelling man not far removed from the brute, to the high¬ 
est man towering by the virtues of his heart and mind almost above 
humanity, and making society stand in awe of him and doubt his 
human nature. 

Universal Religion. 

It will then be a religion which will have no place for persecu¬ 
tion or intolerance in its polity, which will recognize a divinity in 
every man or woman, and the whole force of which will be directed 
towards aiding humanity to realize its own true divine nature. 

Offer religions in ,thy hand, and all the nations must follow 
thee. Asoka’s council was a council of the Buddhist faith. Akbar’s, 
though more to the purpose, was only a parlour-meeting. It was 
reserved for America to call, to proclaim to all quarters of the 
globe that the Lord is in every religion. 

May He who is the Brahma of the Hindus, the Abura Mazda 
of the Zoroastrians, the Buddha of the Buddhists, the Jehovah of 
the Jews, the Father in Heaven of the Christians, give strength 
to you to carry out your noble idea. The star arose in the East; 
it travelled steadily toward the West, sometimes dimmed and some¬ 
times effulgent, till it made a circuit of the world, and now it is 
again rising on the very horizon of the East, the borders of the 
Tasifu, a thousand-fold more effulgent than it ever was before. 


GENERAL ESTIMATE OF THE ADDRESS. 

Before examining the Address in detail, some remarks may be 
made on it as a whole. It is thus characterised by the Editor of 
The Indian Nation :— 

“ In truth there is no more difficult subject to discuss than Hinduism, 
and the difficulty borders on impossibility when an attempt is made 
to compress the exposition into a discourse of a few pages, capable of 
being read out in about half an hour...We cannot help thinking that it 
exhibits other evils than those of mere over-compression. It is not 
merely inadequate, but it is inaccurate, inconsistent, inconclusive. 

“ It is amusing to observe how the writer appropriates the doctrines 
and motives of Christianity and flings them in triumph at the Christians. 
The doctrine of love may be Hindu, but it is also and mainly Christian.” 

“ It is very strange indeed that a writer should seize some of the 
common places of all religions, and try to make them out to be the 
differentice of Hinduism. It is little short of ridiculous for instance to 
argue that it is the Hindu alone who refuses to regard man as a mass 
of matter.” 

“ ‘ The Hindu does not want to live upon words and theories.’ Here 
also are the same preposterous claims of a monopoly.” 



IS HINDUISM A RELIGION ? 


21 


“We are glad that there was at least one Hindu to represent 
Hinduism at the ‘ Parliament of Religions,’ and that he did his work in 
a way, which not only satisfied but bewitched his audience. He has our 
gratitude. But what will charm an audience does not always bear 
reading in the stillness of the study. The Swami spoke pretty good 
English, and with Bengali eloquence, but he was a little too discursive 
and superficial, and a little too indiscriminate in his attacks. We 
heartily wish he had confined himself to a defence and an exposition, 
and not assumed the aggressive. We cannot but regret that a discourse 
which will be so largely read, lacks philosophical depth and accuracy. 
Its tone is unnecessarily warm ; it is loose in reasoning.” March 26,1894. 

Such was the candid, unprejudiced opinion expressed by an 
able critic, himself a Hindu, when copies of the Address first 
reached India. At a later period, when it was seen that political 
capital might be made out of the Swamds reception in America, as 
well as national pride gratified, the address was referred to in very 
different terms. 

It may only be added here that theSwamimakes two astounding 
assertions: (1). That men are holy and perfect beings. “Ye, 
divinities on earth sinners? It is a sin to call a man so.” p. 11. (2), 
“That there is no polytheism in India?” (p. 14.) 

The Swami’s address is truly represented by The Indian Nation 
as “ INADEQUATE, INACCURATE, INCONSISTENT, and INCONCLUSIVE.” Much 
of it consists of mere clap-trak, or what the Americans call “bun¬ 
kum.” Still, it deserves consideration as it has been so widely read. 
It also affords an opportunity of bringing before thoughtful Hindus 
some of the great truths of religion. 

In the following remarks no statement will be made which is 
not believed to be the exact truth. It is a favourite weapon with 
some Hindu controversialists to charge Missionaries with mis¬ 
representation. Let the reader calmly weigh the evidence, how¬ 
ever distasteful it may be. 

The remark of the late Sir Madava Row should be borne in 
mind 

“ What is not True is not Patriotic.” 

The desire should be to ascertain the truth, not to palter with 
it, by shutting the eyes to the light, or defending Hinduism by 
sophistical arguments. 

The prayer of the Upanishads, in the highest sense, should be 
daily offered: 

“ Lead us from the unreal to the real.” 

“ Hinduism as a Religion.” 

Such is the title given to the Swami’s address in the Madras 
re print. The first question that suggests itself is the following : 

Is Hinduism a Religion ? 


22 


SWAMI VIVEKANANDA ON HINDUISM. 


In comparing two objects, their distinguishing feature is of 
most importance. A man and a monkey have both two eyes, two 
ears, a mouth, &c.; but the characteristic of the former is that he 
possesses reason, enabling him to know about God and distinguish 
right from wrong. It may be asked what is the distinguishing 
feature of religion ? Dictionaries define it to be, “ The per¬ 
formance of our duties of love and obedience towards God.” Is 
Hinduism a religion in this sense ? Babu Guru Prasad Sen says :— 

“ Hinduism is not, and never has been a religious organization....It 
is perfectly optional with a Hindu to choose from any of the different 
creeds with which the Shastras abound (or any other creed not a trace 
of which is found in the Shastras or in any other book) he may choose 
to have a faith and creed, if he wants a creed, or to do without one. 
He may be an atheist, a deist, a monotheist, or a polytheist, a believer 
in the Vedas or Shastras, or be a sceptic as regards their authority, and 
his positions as a Hindu cannot be questioned by any one on account of 
his beliefs or unbeliefs, so long as he conforms to social rules. This 
has been the case with Hinduism in all ages.” 

“It is a pare social system, insisting on those who are Hindus the 
observance of certain social forms, and not the profession of particular 
religious belief.”* 

If religion means our duty to God , Hinduism is not a religion. 
It is a social organization, whose essence is the observance of 
caste rules. 

The Comprehensiveness and Exclusiveness op Hinduism. 

The Swami says — 

“ From the high spiritual flights of Vedantic philosophy of which 
the latest discoveries of science seem like echoes, from the agnosticism of 
the Buddhist and the atheism of the Jains to the low ideas of idolatry 
and the multifarious mythologies, each and all have a place in the Hin¬ 
du’s religion.” page 7. 

The Swami expresses the truth with regard to the “compre¬ 
hensiveness” of Hinduism. Mr. Chentsal Rao describes it as an 
“ encyclopaedia of religions.” 

Sir Alfred Lyall says :— 

“ I doubt whether any one who has not lived among Hindus can 
adequately realize the astonishing variety of their ordinary religious 
beliefs, the constant changes of shape and colour which these beliefs 
undergo, the extraordinary fecundity of the superstitious sentiment—in 
short, the scope, range, depth, and height of religious ideas and practices 
prevailing simultaneously among the population of one country, or of 
one not very extensive province.” 

“ We can scarcely comprehend an ancient religion, still alive and 
powerful, which is a mere troubled sea, without shore or visible horizon, 


* Introduction to the Study of Religions , pp. 2, 3. 



TOLERANCE AND INTOLERANCE OF HINDUISM. 


23 


driven to and fro by the winds of boundless credulity, and grotesque in¬ 
vention. ” Asiatic Studies , pp. 1-3. 

Referring to that SwamTs remarks, The Indian Nation replies :— 

“ Each and all of what ? • Of beliefs or religions we take it. If, how¬ 
ever, Hinduism is able to embrace atheism and low ideas of idolatry 
and every variety of mythology, it is universal to be sure, but can it claim 
any organic unity, can it even claim to be a spiritual religion ? A 
mechanical juxtaposition is not unification. Theism and Atheism, Mono¬ 
theism and Polytheism, Spiritualism and Materialism, are no more recon¬ 
ciled or unified by arbitrarily giving to them a common name like 
Hinduism, or binding their written expositions in one volume, than A is 
identified with Not-Aby writing the two symbols together.” March 26th 
1894. 

In another issue the same journal says :— 

“He (the Swami) is beating his head against the rocks when he 
tries to prove that a religion which lays claim to organic unity and to 
spirituality may embrace theism and atheism, vedantism and low ideas of 
idolatry. ‘ Religion,’ of course, may be so defined as to be applicable to 
atheism, agnosticism, &c. Carlyle gave such a definition. But no one 
religion can claim it once to affirm and to deny God, to ignore Him and 
worship Him, to believe in Him as a subtle essence inconceivably fine, 
and to have ‘ low ideas of idolatry.’ It is useless speaking of the con¬ 
flicting doctrines as different paths leading to a ‘common goal.’ We 
should very much like to know what this common centre is, for we must 
confess we can conceive of none which can be reached by.theism and atheism 
alike. We are past that stage when a mere phrase would charm us into 
slavery, and until more light dawns upon us we must hold ‘ common 
centre’ and ‘ convergence of diverging radii’ to be mere phrases.” April 
9th, 1894. 

Hinduism is only a word , including all the false religions of 
the world—a word which foreigners, in their ignorance, have used 
of India and its religions. 

The Exclusiveness of Hinduism. —An Englishman may be¬ 
come a Muhammadan or Buddhist. A person of any religion may 
embrace Christianity ; but an Englishman cannot become a Hindu. 
The Indian Nation says :— 

“ Hinduism, so far from being the most catholic, is the most ex¬ 
clusive of religions. No mere acceptance of doctrines will make a man 
a Hindu, unless he is born such, or unless from a condition of religion¬ 
less savagery he passes into an acceptance of Hindu priest and practices. 

Converts we cannot have. There may be fresh recruits to the band 
of vegetarians, the admirers of cremation may multiply, respect for the 
learning of ancient India may grow, Theosophy may ^advance, Hindu 
social practices may be increasingly appreciated, Hindu philosophy may 
spread far and wide ; but there can be no accession to the ranks of Hindus 
except by birth, or by incorporation of raw and unstamped specimens of 
humanity.” March 26th, 1894. 



24 


SWAMI VIVEKANANDA ON HINDUISM. 


The Tolerance and Intolerance op Hinduism. 

Hinduism is, at once, most tolerant and intolerant. It will 
allow a man to be an atheist, theist, polytheist, pantheist; he may 
worship anything in the heaven above or in the earth beneath, or 
nothing. He may charge God with the greatest crimes or he may 
deny His existence. He may be guilty of lying, theft, adultery, 
murder; but so long as he observes the rules of his caste, he may 
live in his own home unmolested, and have free admission to 
Hindu temples. But let him visit England to study, let him marry 
a widow, dine with a person of another caste, or even take a glass of 
water from his hand, and, according.to Hinduism, he is excommuni¬ 
cated. 

Hinduism, however, reserves its greatest intolerance for the 
man who becomes a Christian. Hindus are then up in arms and 
make the most* intolerant speeches, and do the most intolerant 
deeds. They are ready to call down the curses of all the gods 
upon those who have been instrumental in the conversion. They 
invoke the aid of the law and employ all its machinery to crush them ; 
they are even willing in some cases, to do to death the man who 
has dared to think for himself and to act up to his convictions. 
These things show that under the seeming toleration of the Hindu 
lurks a spirit of most bitter intolerance. 

Hindus urge that to embrace Christianity breaks up their 
families. Whose fault is this ? It belongs to Hinduism and to 
Hinduism alone. The Christian would gladly stay if Hindus would 
let him stay and be true to his convictions and loyal to his God. 
Is he to be faithful first to his earthly or his heavenly Father ? 
Had he become an atheist or immoral he would have been allowed 
to remain; but now, although he may be more affectionate and 
purer than ever before, he is driven out as evil, and even a mother 
has been known to curse her son in the name of her gods, simply 
because he could not agree with his parents in matters of belief. 
Hinduism will connive at all manners of wickedness; but a religion 
of spotless purity is looked upon with abhorrence. 

Religious toleration is the law of India. According to the 
Queen’s Proclamation, “None are to be in any wise favoured, none 
molested or disquieted by reason of their religious faith or observan¬ 
ces.” Although such is the law so far as Government is concerned, 
Hindus seek to expel as outcastes any of their number who avail 
themselves of the liberty. A man is not allowed to think for him¬ 
self. He must act according to the rules of his caste. 

John Stuart Mill, in his Essay on Liberty, thus notices such 
conduct: 

“ Social tyranny is more formidable than many kinds of political 
oppression, since it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more 


THE VEDAS. 


25 

deeply into the details of life and enslaving the soul itself. Protection, 
therefore, against the tyranny of the Magistrate is not enough; there 
needs protection also against the tyranny of the prevailing opinion and 
feeling, against the tendency of society to impose its own ideas and prac¬ 
tices as rules of conduct on those who dissent from them, to fetter the 
development, and, if possible, prevent the formation of any individuality 
not in harmony with its ways, and compel all characters to fashion them¬ 
selves upon the model of its own.” 

‘ Religious intolerance is attended by many evils. Among the 
Hindus it has been a great obstacle to progress, and perpetuated 
a stationary condition of semi-civilisation. The people are like a 
flock of sheep all moving together. 

It has induced religious hypocrisy among the educated who 
have some glimmering of the truth, but who are unwilling to act 
up to their convictions of what is right. This is destructive of all 
nobleness of character. 

It has promoted blind bigotry among the masses who will not 
think for themselves, and seek to crush any who differ from them. 

The Satthiavarttami , a South India journal, has the following 
remarks on the attitude of educated Hindus in the Madras 
Presidency with regard to religious freedom :— 

“ It would seem that the day has come in India, when we might 
except some degree of liberty to people to choose their own religion. 
But we are doomed to disappointment in this matter. And it appears 
that the most unreasoning bigots and the most uncompromising enemies 
of such a freedom are educated Hindus—even university graduates. 
These very men will not raise a finger to hinder a young man from 
plunging into the most sinful, licentious life. So far as they are 
concerned he may keep concubines and coquet with dancing girls and 
defy all the ten commandments. He may even be a pronounced 
materialist or atheist. But the moment he proclaims himself the 
disciple of the pure and lovely Jesus, they are beside themselves with 
rage, and try to prevent the event by all means foul and unfair. While 
Vivekananda is preaching in America and expatiating upon the grand 
toleration of Hinduism, Hindus here are giving him the lie, by an 
amount of bigotry which disgusts all reasonable men. ,,# 

God, our Creator and Preserver, has the first claim upon us. 
Let liberty to think and act according to one's religious convic¬ 
tions be granted to all. 

The Vedas. 


The Swami says :— 

“ The Hindus have received their religion through the revelation of 
the Vedas. They hold that the Vedas are without beginning and without 
end. It may sound ludicrous to this audience how a book can be with- 

* Quoted in the Dnyanadoya, March 14, 1895, 


4 




26 


SWAMI VIVEKANANDA ON HINDUISM. 


out beginning or end. But by the Vedas no books are meant. They 
mean the accumulated treasury of spiritual laws discovered by different 
persons in different times.” Page 7. 

The Swami plays fast and loose with the term “ Vedas.” It 
is properly applied to the Rig, Yajur, Saman, and Atharva Vedas. 
It. is the common belief in India that they are eternal; that they 
existed in the mind of the Deity before the beginning of time. At 
the commencement of each Kalpa, Brahma reveals them to Brahmd, 
and they issue from his four mouths. They are taught by Brahmd 
to the Rishis whose names they bear. 

- A learned Sanskrit scholar, Dr. John Muir, has published a 
volume on “ The Vedas, Opinions of their Authors and of later 
Indian Writers of their Origin, Inspiration, and Authority/’ He 
gives quotations in Sanskrit showing that the most contradictory 
accounts are given of their supposed origin. Very numerous 
quotations are also given showing that the Rishis claim to have 
written the hymns themselves, just as a carpenter makes a car. 
Some are styled “new” hymns, which they could not be if they 
were eternal.* 

Creation. 

The Swami says :— 

“ The Vedas teach us that Creation is without beginning or end.” 
Page 8. 

Upon this The Indian Nation remarks :— 

“ The Vedas cannot be guilty of any such solecism as that- Creation 
is a thing created and necessarily implies a beginning.” 

It may be asked which Veda makes such an assertion ? Hymn 
129, Book X. asserts that creation had a beginning. 

The Swami adds :— 

“ Science has proved to us that the sum total of cosmic energy is the 
same throughout all time. Then if there was a time when nothing existed, 
where was all this manifested energy ? Some say it was in a potential 
form in (rod. But then God is sometimes potential! and sometimes 
kinetic,^ which would make him mutable, and everything mutable is a 
compound, and everything compound must undergo that change which is 
called destruction. And thus God would die. Therefore there never was 
a time when there was no creation.” Page 8- 

Science has not proved that the sum of cosmic energy is 
always the same. It knows only that cosmic energy passes from 
one form to another; as from motion to heat. 

* See Who wrote trie Vedas ? in which some of the Sanskrit quotations are given. 
^ An. Sold by Mr. A. T. Scott, Tract Depot, Madras. f Having power to act. 

! Causing motion. 



CEEATION. 


27 


The Indian Nation has the following remarks on the above:— 

4< After a little metaphysical dogmatising the writer concludes: 

# Therefore there never was a time when there was no creation.’ There 
is a certain fitness in this reconciliation, for one contradiction—a creation 
without a creator and an act of creating—is made to reconcile another, 
that of theism and atheism. The writer is apparently unaw&re that he 
does not very much exalt the conception of God when he thinks that He 
must be either potential or kinetic energy,—expressions applicable to 
mechanical energy alone, and not to any spiritual power, like will, for 
instance. Whatever the Yedas may teach, it is not true that to be a 
Hindu it is necessary to dispense with the idea of creation. The Sankhya 
philosophy has an atheistic and theistic branch, and though Kapila does 
not believe in creation as a voluntary act, Patanjali does. The Vedanta 
also teaches a philosophy of voluntary creation. It is worthy of note 
that whatever the doctrines of this or that school may be, the prevailing 
belief even of educated men has been in favour of creation. Sanskrit 
literature gives abundant indications of such a belief, and it finds 
expression in the language of every day life. A very definite doctrine 
is couched in the following sloika :* 

Apa eva sasarjadau tasu vijamavasrijat 

Tadandamabhabaddhaimam sahasransusamaprabham 

(He first created the waters, and in them created the seed that 
became a golden egg, equal in glory to the sun. 

“ And the doctrine is one of creation. The prologue to Sakuntala 
begins with the words 

Ya srishtih srashturadya 

(Which primal creation of the Creator) 

And in Meghaduta we read the phrase 

Srishtiradyeva dhatuh. 

(Creation like the primal element) 

“ These are only a few of the numerous citations that could be made, 
tending to show the wide-spread belief in creation. And Kalidasa, we 
suppose, was a good Hindu. Brahma, Vishnu and Maheswara are regard¬ 
ed as the Creator, the Preserver and the Destroyer of the world, and a set 
phrase, alike in Sanskrit and Bengali, is srishti , sthiti, pralaya (Creation, 
Subsistence, Destruction). Are we now to be told that words like Sjishti 
Srashta, Srijan (Creation, Creator, Act of Creation) cover only fictions ?” 

To create is to form out of nothing. According to Hinduism 
there is no creation in the strict sense of the word. This is the 
result of that fixed dogma of a Hindu philosopher's belief— navas- 
tuno vastusiddhih, nothing can be produced out of nothing. 

The Great Teacher once said to some of his hearers, “ Ye do err, 
not knowing the power of God." Because a potter cannot make a 
jar without materials, it is supposed that God, possessed of infinite 


/ 


* Given in Bengali character. 



28 


SWAMI VIVEKANANDA ON HINDUISM. 


power and wisdom, is equally unable. He says, {C Thou thoughtest 
that I was altogether such an one as thyself.” God, by His 
almighty power, can call worlds into existence or destroy them. 

The Soul. 

The Swami says :— 

“ I am a spirit living in a body. I am not the body. The body 
will die, but I will not die. Here I am in this body, and when it will 
fall, still will I go on living. Also I had a past. The soul was not 
created from nothing, for creation means a combination, and that means 
a certain future dissolution. If, then, the soul was created, it must die. 
Therefore it was not created.” Page 11. 

How does the Swami know that the Soul was not created out 
of nothing ? Creation does not mean a combination ; but even if it 
did, it would not mean a certain future dissolution unless God so 
willed it. If God willed no dissolution, there would be none. If 
God willed creation from nothing, then creation from nothing took 
place—not otherwise. 

According to Hinduism, souls may pass into gods, demons, 
beasts, birds, reptiles, fishes, insects, into plants, and even into 
inanimate objects. Who can estimate the number of these eternal 
svayambhu essences ! Is it not perfectly unphilosophical, because 
absolutely unnecessary and egregiously extravagant, to assume 
such an indefinite number of eternal essences, when one Supreme 
Essence is sufficient to account for all things, visible or invisible, 
material or spiritual ? 

If a man denied thp existence of his earthly parents, it would 
be a great sin; but it is a much greater sin to deny that God is our 
Maker and Heavenly Father. 

If our souls are eternal and self-existent, we are a sort of 
miniature gods. Our relation to God is changed. It is only that 
of king and subjects. His right over us is only that of might. It 
is only because He is mightier than we, and because He possesses 
power to benefit and to harm us that we should be anxious to pay 
homage to Him. There is not the love which a child should 
cherish towards a father. True religion is thus destroyed. 

Former Births. 

The Swami deems these necessary to account for the inequali¬ 
ties in the condition of people in this life :— 

“ Some are born happy, enjoying perfect health with beautiful body 
and mental vigour, and with all their wants supplied. Others are born 
miserable. Some are without hands or feet; some are idiots, and only 
drag on a miserable existence. Why if they are all created, why does a 
just and merciful God create one happy and the other unhappy ? Why is 


FORMER BIRTHS. 


29 


He so partial F Nor would it mend matters in the least to hold that those 
who are miserable in this life will be perfect in a future life. Why 
should a man be miserable even here in the reign of a just and merciful 
God ? 

“ There must have been causes then to make a man miserable or 
happy before his birth, and these are his past actions.” Page n 

There is no doubt that the unequal distribution of happiness in 
this world is a great problem which has exercised the minds of 
thinking men from the dawn of philosophy. The theory of Karma , 
arising from former births, has been accepted both by Hindus and 
Buddhists as the explanation. On inquiry, however, it will be seen 
that it is attended with insuperable difficulties. 

Should a son be hanged because his father committed murder? 

. According to the doctrine of Karma, people suffer, not on account 
of their own deeds, but for those of their ancestors of which they 
know nothing. Why does Karma not punish a man for actions 
committed in his present birth ? 

Karma is supposed to be endowed with most wonderful in¬ 
fluence and qualities. As a judge, its decisions are marked by 
unerring wisdom, and its awards are carried out to the letter. It 
extends to all worlds and to all time. What is it that Hindus 
suppose to possess these high attributes ? A mere name, something 
which has no existence. What power is there in an action itself to 
reward or punish, millions of years after it was performed ? 

There are other objections to the doctrine of Karma. 

1. Inequalities of happiness are less than is supposed .—There 
are many poor men far happier than the rich. There is a proverb : 
“ The fruit of austerities a kingdom; the fruit of a kingdom, hell.” 
Great men are tempted to vices from which the poor are free. 

'2. Happiness or misery is often traceable to conduct in this 
life .—It is not necessary to blame Karma after the manner of the 
ignorant for what a man’s acts bring upon himself. 

3. We can look forward as well as backward .—This world is a 
state of preparation for the next. A child at school is placed 
under the discipline of a teacher to train him for the purposes of 
life. Notwithstanding all the pain and sorrow there is in the 
world, people are too much attached to it. Much more would this 
be the case if all went well with us. Sickness, as it were, says to 
us, “ Arise, this is not your rest.” 

A holy man of old said, “ It is good for me that I have been 
afflicted. Before I was afflicted I went astray; but now have I kept 
Thy word.” Millions upon millions have had the same experience. 
Good men who suffer affliction rightly, come out of it purified, like 
gold which has been tried by fire. Many parents have been led by 
the sickness and death of their children to think of a world where 
there is no more pain or death, and where they shall meet again 
their loved ones, never more to be separated. 


30 SWAMI VIVEKANANDA ON HINDUISM. 

• $ 

4. Karma does not explain the origin of things .—Before there 
could be merit or demerit, beings must have existed and acted. 
The first in order could no more have been produced by Karma 
than a hen could be born from her own egg, or a cow from her 
own calf. 

The Indian Nation , remarking on the above extract from the 
Swami, says — 

“We should have been glad if in this connection he had told us if 
he believed in any such thing as Moral Law and Moral Responsibility, and, 
if he did, what account he had to give of them. Whether souls are created 
or not the writer’s argument is not particularly profound. The difficulty 
he barely touches is part of a larger difficulty. Why is there evil at all 
in the world, if it is under the sway of a merciful and moral Ruler P And 
why so often does Vice prosper and Virtue suffer in this world? The. 
theory of Karmmaphal is very little of a solution. If a man’s present life 
in this world, miserable or happy, is only the necessary consequence of 
the actions of his prior life and is not in any way voluntary, why should 
it bring to him happiness or misery in his next birth ? Punishment or 
reward may themselves be necessarily entailed, but when they are com¬ 
plete, their power is spent, the necessity is satisfied. What then is to come 
next P Theft may necessarily bring on imprisonment, but when the 
ordained period has been served out, can the thief be treated in any way 
before he has had time to do a fresh voluntary act ?” 

Mental Heredity. 

Heredity means the doctrine that children inherit the qualities 
of their parents. The Swami says on this point:— 

“We cannot deny that bodies inherit certain tendencies, but those 
tendencies only mean the physical configuration through which a peculiar 
mind alone can act in a peculiar way. The peculiar tendencies of any 
soul are caused by its past actions. A soul with a certain tendency will 
take birth in a body which is the fittest instrument for the display of 
that tendency, by the laws of affinity. And this is in perfect accord with 
science, for science wants to explain everything by habit, and habit is 
the result of repetitions. So these repetitions are also necessary to 
explain the natural habits of a new-born soul. They were not got in 
this present life, therefore, they must have come down from past lives.” 
Page 12. 

Upon this The Indian Nation says: — 

“ The writer’s remarks on heredity are dogmatic to a degree. We are 
told that inheritance is only physical, and the ‘ peculiar tendencies of any 
soul are caused by itk past actions.’ That may or may not be, for the 
writer does not deign to offer any evidence.” 

Mental heredity admits of the same proof that physical con¬ 
figuration does. If the peculiar mental tendencies of any soul are 
caused by its past actions, so also one would think bodily tenden- 


RECALLING THE PAST. 


31 


cies, as deafness, blindness, consumption, &c.; yet nothing is 
scientifically clearer than that heredity has to do with these. What, 
then, becomes of the Swami* s reasonings ? And as to souls taking 
possession of bodies the fittest—why the very opposite is fre¬ 
quently met with—the best souls having the worst bodies, and the 
worst souls having the best bodies. 

Recalling the Past. 

The Swami considers that our former births are proved by our 
ability to recall the past: 

Recalling the Past. 

“ But there is another suggestion, which takes all these for granted. 
How is it that I do not remember anything of my past life ? This can 
be easily explained. I am now speaking English. It is not my mother 
tongue, in fact not a word of my mother tongue is present in my con¬ 
sciousness ; but, let me try to bring such words up, they rush into my 
consciousness. That shows that consciousness is the name only of the 
surface of the mental ocean, and within its depths are stored up all our 
experiences. Try and struggle, and they will come up, and you will be 
conscious even of the experiences of a past life. 

“ This is direct and demonstrative evidence. Verification is the per¬ 
fect proof of a theory, and here is the challenge thrown to the world 
by our Rishis. We have discovered the secrets by which the very depths 
of the ocean of memory can be stirred up—follow them and you will get 
a complete reminiscence of your past life.” Page 12. 

The power of recalling the past is claimed to be “ direct and 
demonstrative evidence.” The reply is, that this evidence is -not 
forthcoming. The Indian Nation says :— 

“ Personally we are prepared to make the confession that struggle as 
we may, we cannot recall any such experiences, and we should be glad if 
the Swami would give us the benefit of his reminiscences. The little 
logic we possess does not justify us in admitting that *‘ verification is 
the perfect proof of a theory;’ but where is the verification? ‘We 
have discovered the secrets by which the very depths of the ocean of 
memory can be stirred,’ says the lecturer. We have not.” 

All the Swamis, Paramahansas and Mahatmas in India and 
Tibet are challenged to give us credible accounts of their former 
births. India is without an ancient history. Let them unfold its 
secrets. At Sarnath, near Benares, there are remains showing that 
Buddhist buildings were destroyed by fire. Let them tell us how 
this happened. 

It is objected that we csnnot recall the events of our former 
births because we are under the power of maya, or illusion. How 


32 


SWAMI VIVEKANANDA ON HINDUISM. 


is it that maya extends only to alleged former births and not to the 
present ? We can recollect events that happened to us in early 
childhood. The fact is that one false theory is attempted to be 
supported by another. We cannot recollect events in alleged 
former births, because they had no existence. We remember the 
present life, maya notwithstanding, because we have really existed. 

The Soul. 

The Swami says :— 

“ So then the Hindu believes that he is a spirit. Him the sword 
cannot pierce, him the fire cannot burn, him the water cannot melt, him 
the air cannot dry. The Hindu believes that every soul is a circle whose 
circumference is nowhere but whose centre is located in a body, and that 
death means the change of this centre from body to body.” Page 12. 

The Indian Nation remarks :— 

“ ‘ So then the Hindu believes that he is a spirit/ concludes the 
writer, but does he mean that the Hindu alone has that belief ? Every 
one that believes in spirit at all, believes that he is a spirit. The Hindu 
has not a monopoly of spiritualistic faith. The same is true of his next 
conclusion, ‘ the human soul is eternal, and immortal/ for the immor¬ 
tality of the soul is insisted on by none more than by Christians.” 

Christianity, however, differs from Hinduism in not saying 
anything about the size of the soul. 

The Swarai’s theory is that the “ soul is a circle, whose circum¬ 
ference is nowhere, but whose centre is located in a body.” This 
is the doctrine of the Yaiseshika School : 

Ether, in consequence of its universal pervasion, is infinitely great; 
and so likewise is soul.” vii. 22. 

On the contrary, the Katha Upanishad says : 

“The soul (Purusha) which in the measure of a thumb, dwells in 
the middle of the body.” iv. 12. 

The Svetasvatara Upanishad seems to express three conflicting 
opinions : 

“ 8. “ He, who, of the measure of a thumb.” 

“9. The embodied soul is to be thought like the hundredth part of 
the point of a hair, divided into a hundred parts ; he is considered to be 
infinite.” Chap. V. 

Instead of such speculations, it would have been much wiser to 
have made the confession elsewhere of the Swami, “ I do not know.” 

Passage of the soul from one body to another. —The Swami 
simply says “ death means the change of this centre from body to 
body.” The Upanishads go into detail. 


THE MISERY OP EXISTENCE AND SUPPOSED RELIEF. 


33 


The Katha Upanishad says : 

“There are 101 arteries of the heart: the one of them (Sushumn£) 
proceeds to the head. By this (at the time of death) rising upwards (by 
the door of A'ditya) a person gains immortality ; or the other (arteries) 
are of various course.” vi. 16. Boer’s Translation. 

Several other Upanishads assert that the heart has 101 arteries, 
by one of which the soul escapes at death. The slightest examina¬ 
tion of the heart shows that all this is imaginary. There are just two 
large arteries connected with the heart. The pulmonary artery, which 
conveys impure blood to the lungs, and the aorta, which, afterwards 
sub-divided, conveys pure blood to the whole body. In like manner 
there are two great veins carrying impure blood to the heart from 
the whole body, and four veins containing pure blood, leading 
from the lungs to the heart. 

It is plain that Grod who made the body cannot have inspired 
the Upanishads, for He cannot give a false account of his own work. 
Hindu speculations about the size of the soul are equally baseless. 

The Misery of Existence and Supposed Belief. 

The Swami first expresses the pessimist idea of life entertained 
by Hinduism and Buddhism :—• 

“ The soul will go on evolving up or reverting back from birth to 
birth and death to death. It is like a tiny boat in a tempest, raised one 
moment on the foaming crest of a billow and dashed down into a yawning 
chasm the next, rolling to and fro at the mercy of good and bad actions 
—a powerless, helpless wreck in an ever-raging, ever-rushing, uncompro¬ 
mising current of cause and effect; a little moth placed under the wheel 
of causation which rolls on, crushing everything in its way, and waits 
not for the widow’s tears or the orphan’s cry A 

“ The heart sinks at this idea, yet such is the law of nature. Is there 
no hope ? Is there no escape P The cry that went up from the bottom 
of the heart of despair reached the throne of mercy, and words of hope 
and consolation came down and inspired a Vedic sage, and he stood up 
before the world and in trumpet voice proclaimed the glad tidings to 
the world : ‘ Hear, ye children of immortal bliss, even ye that reside in 

higher spheres. I have found the way out, I have found the ancient One, 
who is beyond all darkness, all delusion, and knowing Him alone you 
shall be saved from death again.’ 

“ Then all doubt causes. Man is no more the freak of a terrible law 
of causation. So this is the very centre, the very vital conception of 
Hinduism. The Hindu does not wish to live upon words and theories.” 
Page 13. 

The Indian Nation remarks on the above :— 

“ The writer little realises the relation between his different views, 
for he presents life, or rather a series of births, as a chain of necessary 


* In the Chicago edition the whole sentence is put as a question. 

5 



34 


SWAMI VIVEKANANDA ON HINDUISM, 


causation, and yet protests on the authority of the Vedas that we do not 
dwell in an endless prison of cause and effect, and that man is not ‘ a 
freak of the terrible law of causation.’ By the bye, why should the law 
of causation be terrible ?” 

Who was this Vedic sage who used such words of Mlechhas ? 
When and where did he stand before the world and proclaim this 
glad message in “ trumpet voice ?” Let the Swami give chapter 
and verse. 

Are Men Sinners ? 

One of the most extraordinary assertions in the Swami’s address 
is his denial that men are sinners. 

Children of God. 

“ Children of immortal bliss,” what a sweet, what a hopeful name ! 
Allow me to call you, brethren, by that sweet name—heirs of immortal 
bliss—yea, the Hindu refuses to call you sinners. 

“ Ye are the children of God, the sharers of immortal bliss, holy and 
perfect beings. Ye, divinities on earth, sinners ? It is a sin to call a 
man so. It is a standing libel on human nature. Come up O ! lions and 
shake off the delusion that you are sheep—you are souls immortal, 
spirits free and blest and eternal, ye are not matter, ye are not bodies. 
Matter is your servant, not you the servant of matter.” pp. 13, 14. 

The Swami here contradicts himself. In a previous part of his 
address it is asserted that birth is a penalty of sin, yet now it is 
said that man is sinless. He also contradicts his countrymen. If 
men are “ holy and perfect beings,” what is the need of bathing in 
the Ganges or other supposed sacred waters ? It is only pride and 
ignorance that make a man deny that he is a sinner. The holiest 
man are the first to acknowledge it. Some Brahmans daily make 
this acknowledgment :— 

Papo’ham papakarmaham papatma papasambhavah. 

“ I am sin ; I commit sin; my soul is sinful; I am conceived 
in sin.” 

A Hindu writer says, “ This powerful devil of a deceitful heart is 
fiercer than fire, more impassable than the mountains, and harder 
than adamant; sooner might the ocean be emptied than the mind 
be restrained.” 

Was Krishna God incarnate on Earth? 

The Swami says :— 

“ This is the doctrine of love preached in the Vedas, and let us see 
how it is fully developed and preached by Krishna, whom the Hindus 
believe to have been God incarnate on earth,” Page 14. 


THE RELIGION OP THE HINDUS. 


35 


The supposed Avatara of Krishna is fully described in the 
Bhagavata and Yishnu Puranas. Love was certainly not a feature 
of his character. He murdered Kansans washerman because he 
complained of the injury done to his master’s clothes; a great part 
of his life was spent in fighting; he burnt up the city of Benares 
and destroyed its inhabitants; and one of the last acts of his life 
was to kill the survivors of his reputed 180,000 sons. 

In the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna, his eyes full of tears, expresses 
his unwillingness to kill his own relations and teachers in battle, 
his preceptors and friends. Krishna’s reply was, “ Cast off this 
base weakness of heart, and arise, 0 terror of foes.” 

With 8 queens and 16,100 wives, Krishna was rather an 
incarnation of lust than of God.* 

The Indian Nation says : “ The doctrine of love may be Hindu, 
but it is also mainly Christianity. The Bible says, “ God is love.” 
The whole Christian law is summed up in love to God and love to 
man. 

A Disciple op Krishna. 

The Swami says :— 

“ One of the disciples of Krishna, the then Emperor of India was 
driven from his throne^by his enemies, and had to take shelter in a forest 
in the Himalayas with his queen.” Page 14. 

Yudhisthir was not Emperor of India, but only of a small 
portion of it. He had only a fifth share in Draupadi, called his 
queen, for she was the common wife of five brothers. Where are 
the words attributed to Yudhisthir to be found ? 

“The Religion op the Hindus.” 

The Swami says :—* 

‘‘ So the whole struggle in their system is a constant struggle to 
become perfect, to become divine, to reach God and see God, and in thus 
reaching God, seeing God, and becoming perfect, even as the father in 
Heaven is perfect, consists the religion of the Hindus. 

“ And what becomes of man when he becomes perfect ? He lives 
a life of bliss, infinite. He enjoys infinite and perfect bliss having 
obtained the only thing in which man ought to have pleasure — God — and 
enjoys the bliss with God.” Page 15. 

The Swami first told his hearers that they were “ holy and 
perfect beings,” (see page .13); now he tells then they must con¬ 
stantly struggle to become so. 

“ Becoming perfect even as the Father in heaven is perfect” 
is a Christian doctrine, probably learned by the Swami when he 

* See Krishna, .as described in the Puranas and Bhagavad GHta. 8vo 72 pp* 
As, Post-free, 3 As. 



36 


SWAMI VIVBKANANDA ON HINDUISM. 


attended the General Assembly’s Institution. In Matthew v. 48, 
Jesus Christ says, “ Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in 
heaven is perfect.” 

What is the Hindu idea of perfection by which mukti is ob¬ 
tained ? When the maha-vakya , or great sentence, can be uttered, 
Aham brahmasmi, “ I am Brahman” or Tat twam asi , “ It thou art.” 

This horrible doctrine is thus exposed by two ancient Hindu 
writers. Gaudapurnananda says 

“ Thou art verily rifled, 0 thou animal soul, of thy understanding, 
by this dark theory of Maya, because like a maniac, thou constantly 
ravest , 1 I am Brahma.’ Where is thy divinity, thy sovereignty, thy omni¬ 
science ? 0 thou animal soul I thou art as different from Brahma 

as is a mustard seed from Mount Meru. Thou art a finite soul, He is 
infinite. Thou canst occupy but one space at a time, He is always every¬ 
where. Thou art momentarily happy or miserable, He is happy at all 
times. How canst thou say ‘ 1 am He ?’ Hast thou no shame 

Ramanuja, another celebrated Hindu writer, argues against it 
similarly:— 

“ The word tat (it) stands for the ocean of immortality, full of 
supreme felicity. The word twam (thou) stands for a miserable person, 
distracted through fear of the world. The two cannot therefore be one. 
They are substantially different. He is to be worshipped by the whole 
world. Thou art but His slave. How could there be an image or reflec¬ 
tion of the infinite and spotless One ? There may be a reflection of a 
finite substance; how could there be such a thing of the Infinite ? How 
canst thou, oh slow of thought ! say, I am He, who has set up this 
immense sphere of the universe in its fulness P By the mercy of the 
Most High a little understanding has been committed to thee: it is not 
for thee, oh perverse one, to say, therefore I am God.” # 

“ Infinite Bliss.” 

The Swami’s ideas of future happiness are tinctured by 
Christianity. He describes it as “ conscious.” The Nirguna 
Brahma, into whom absorption takes place, is not conscious. His 
existence is compared to “ dreamless sleep.” He is existence only 
in the negation of non-existence; only bliss (ananda) in the nega¬ 
tion of freedom from the miseries incident to life and transmigra¬ 
tion. The “ infinite bliss” is that of a stone. 

There is therefore, not the “ happiness of enjoying the con¬ 
sciousness of two bodies,” and at last of “ infinite individuality, 
whatever that may mean.” 

“Manifestation, Not Creation.” 

The Swami says 

“ All science is bound to come to this conclusion in the long run. 
Manifestation, and not creation, is the word of science to-day.” Page 16. 


# Banerjea’s Dialogues , pp. 379, 408. 




NO POLYTHEISM IN INDIA. 


37 


Science says nothing of the kind. It does not profess to give 
the origin of things, but only to describe them as they are. 
Chemistry tells us that the whole universe is composed of atoms, so 
excessively small that they cannot be seen. It further shows that 
each atom is, as it were, cast in a fixed mould, like bricks, so that 
it will unite with others only in certain proportions. The very 
atoms, therefore, afford proof that they were fashioned by the great 
Architect of nature.* 

“No Polytheism in India.” 

This is one of the wildest of the Swamfis assertions:— 

“Descend we now from the aspirations of philosophy to the religion 
of the ignorant. At the very outset, I may tell you that there is no 
Polytheism in India. In every temple, if one stands by and listens, one 
will find.the worshippers apply all the attributes of God—including 
omnipresence—to the images. This is not Polytheism. “ The rose called 
by any other name would smell as sweet.” Names are not explanations.” 
pp. 16,17. 

Here the Swami contradicts himself. In beginning his address 
he admits the “ multifarious mythologies” of India; now he says 
that “ there is no Polytheism in India.” 

The word polytheism is composed of polys, many, theos , god. 
The meaning given in dictionaries of a polytheist is “ a believer in 
many gods.” No people in the world more deserve to be called 
polytheists than the Hindus. Even the religion of the Yedas is 
polytheistic. The gods are usually spoken of as thrice eleven with 
their wives, as the following quotations show :— 

In the third Mandala of the Rig-Yeda, Hymn 6, verse 10, Agni 
is thus addressed; 

“ Bring, with their wives, the gods, the three*and-thirty, after thy 
god-like nature, and be joyful.” 

The following invitation is given to the Asvins 

“ Come 0 Nasatyas, with the thrice eleven gods; come, 0 ye Asvins 
to the drinking of the meath.” I. 34. 11. 

A hymn to the Yisvedevas concludes thus : 

“ 0 ye eleven gods whose home is heaven, 0 ye eleven who make 
earth your dwelling. 

Ye who with might, eleven, live in waters, accept the sacrifice, 0 
gods, with pleasure.” I. 139. 11. 

It will be seen that the gods are reduced in number from 33 
crores to 33 with their wives. In Book iv. 9. 9. the gods are men¬ 
tioned as being much more numerous : “ Three hundred, three 
thousand, thirty and nine gods have worshipped Agni.” 


# This is fully shown by the late Clerk Maxwell, a distinguished scientist. 



38 


SWAMI VIVEKANANDA ON HINDUISM. 


The gods and goddesses have been so multiplied that they are 
now said to amount to 33 crores. Not content even with these, Hindus 
have accepted Muhammadan Pirs. 

It is alleged that all the gods are the same, though worshipped 
under different names. 

Take the three principal gods, Brahma, Yishnu, and Siva : 
their residences, wives, and children are all different. Brahma is 
said to live in Satya-loka, his wife is Savitri; Yishnu lives in Yai- 
kuntha, his wife is Lakshmi; Siva lives in Kailasa, his wife is said 
to be Parvati. Different dispositions and actions are ascribed to these 
gods. Several times they are said to have fought with each other. 

If the 33 crores of the Hindu gods are all the same, it may as 
well be said that the 28 crores of people in India, with different 
houses, wives, children, occupations, are all one. If the gods are 
one, why are they reckoned as amounting to 33 crores ? 

This is only an excuse for the folly of polytheism put' forward 
by those who are somewhat more intelligent than the masses. 
Rammohun Roy says : “ The Hindus firmly believe in the real 

existence of innumerable gods and goddesses who possess in their 
own departments full and independent powers, and to propitiate 
them, and not the true God, are temples erected and ceremonies 
performed.” 

The Hindus themselves call their religions by the name of the 
particular deity they worship, as Siva Bhakti , Vishnu Bhakti, &c. 
The vast majority would be indignant at the supposition that their 
own religion and the detested heresy of their opponents, are after 
all the same. 


Apologies poe Idolatey. 

The Swami says 

“ Mark, the same earnest man who is kneeling before the idol tells 
you, ‘Him the sun cannot express, nor the moon, nor the stars, the light¬ 
ning cannot express him, nor the fire ; through him they all shine.’ He 
does not abuse the images or call it sinful. He recognizes in it a neces¬ 
sary stage of his life. ‘ The child is father of the man.’ Would it be 
right for the old man to say that childhood is a sin or youth a sin ? Nor 
is image-worship compulsory in Hinduism. 

“ If a man can realize his divine nature most easily with the help of 
an image, would it be right to call it a sin ? Nor, even when he has 
passed that stage, should he call it an error.” Page 18. 

Take some of the most popular images of India and consider 
how they help a man to “ realize his divine nature.” 

The most celebrated idol in India is that of Jaggannath, 
“ The lord of the world,” at Puri. Below is given an exact repre¬ 
sentation of it from Rajendralala’s Antiqxiities of Orissa ; 


APOLOGIES POE IDOLATRY. 


41 


deplore the ignorance or uncharitableness of those that charge ns with this 
grovelling system of worship. But if firmly believing, as we do, in the 
omnipresence of God, we behold, by the aid of our imagination, in the 
form of an image any of His glorious manifestations, ought we to be 
charged with identifying them with the matter of the image, whilst 
during those moments of sincere and fervent devotion, we do not even 
think of matter F 

“ If at the sight of a portrait of a beloved and venerated friend no 
longer existing in this world, our heart is filled with sentiments of love 
and reverence; if we fancy him present in the picture, still looking upon 
us with his wonted tenderness and affection and then indulge our feelings 
of love and gratitude, should we be charged with offering the grossest 
insult to him—that of fancying him to be no other than a piece of 
painted paper ? 

“We really lament the ignorance or uncharitableness of those who 
confound our representative worship with the Phoenician, Grecian, or 
Roman idolatry as represented by European writers, and then charge us 
with polytheism in the teeth of thousands of texts in the Puranas, 
declaring in clear and unmistakeable terms that there is but one God who 
manifests himself as Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra (Siva) in his functions 
of creation, preservation and destruction.” pp. xvii, xviii. 

This is an illustration of the evil condemned years ago by the 
late Sir H. S. Maine—educated men employing their superior know¬ 
ledge to defend popular superstitions. 

Rammohun Roy explains how the above excuse for idolatry 
originated :— 

“Some Europeans, imbued with high principles of liberality, but 
unacquainted with the ritual part of Hindu idolatry, are disposed to 
palliate it by an interpretation which, though plausible, is by no means 
well-founded. They are willing to imagine that the idols which the 
Hindus worship, are not viewed by them in the light of gods or as real 
personifications of the divine attributes, but merely as instruments for 
raising their minds to the contemplation of those attributes, which are 
respectively represented by different figures. I have frequently had 
occasion to remark that many Hindus also who are conversant with the 
English language, finding this interpretation a more plausible apology for 
idolatry than any with which they are furnished by their own guides, do 
not fail to avail themselves of it, though in repugnance both to their 
faith and to their practice. The declarations of this description of Hindus 
naturally tend to confirm the original idea of such Europeans who, from 
the extreme absurdity of pure unqualified idolatry, deduce an argument 
against its existence.” 

Rammohun Roy further shows the falsity of the excuse :— 

“ Neither do they regard the images of these gods merely in the light 
of instruments for elevating the mind to the conception of those supposed 
beings; they are simply in themselves made objects of worship. For 
whatever Hindu purchases an idol in the market, or constructs one with 
his own hands, or has one made under his own superintendence, it is his 
6 


42 


SWAMI VIVEKANANDA ON HINDUISM. 


invariable practice to perform certain ceremonies, called Pran Pratislitha , 
or the endowment of animation, by which he believes that its nature is 
changed from that of the mere materials of which it is formed, and that 
it acquires not only life but supernatural powers. Shortly afterwards, if 
the idol be of the masculine gender, he marries it to a feminine one : 
with no less pomp and magnificence than he celebrates the nuptials of his 
own children. The mysterious process is now complete; and the god and 
goddess are esteemed the arbiters of his destiny, and continually receive 
his most ardent adoration.” 

The life which by one ceremony has been brought into the 
idol, can by another ceremony be taken out. 

The reply has also been well made : 

“ It is true we like to retain photographs of people we love to remind 
us of their form and features ; but your blocks of stone or your deformed 
hideous brazen images, bought at a shop in the bazaar, of what sort of 
Divinity do they remind us ?” 

The excuse is sometimes urged that Idols are necessary for the 
common people. To this Rammohun Roy replies : 

“ Permit me in this instance to ask whether every Mussulman in 
Turkey from the highest to the lowest, every Protestant Christian at 
least of Europe, and many followers of Cabeer and Nanak do worship 
God without the assistance of consecrated objects ? If so, how can we 
suppose that the human race is not capable of adoring the Supreme 
Being without the puerile practice of having recourse to visible objects F 
I will never hesitate to assert, that His adoration is not only possible and 
practicable, but even incumbent, upon every rational creature.” 

Hindus admit that Brahm is nirakdr, without form. Christians 
say that God is a spirit. A sculptor may make an image of a man’s 
body ; but can he make a representation of his soul ? It is equally 
impossible to make an idol like God. “ To whom will ye liken me or 
shall I be equal?” saith the Holy One. 

The ignorant do not need images to remind them of God. 
They cannot understand His form, for He has none. They can re¬ 
member their parents when far distant; they can love a benefactor 
whom they have never seen ; they can obey the authority of a 
Queen-Empress though she never set foot on their soil. They 
can worship God who is a spirit in spirit and in truth. Idols are 
a hindrance, not a help, to true worship. They give most degrading 
ideas of God. 

It is not only “ Missionary slanderers” who charge the Hindus 
with idolatry. The two most distinguished Indians of modern 
times have been Rammohun Roy and Keshab Chunder Sen. The 
opinion of the former has been quoted. An extract may now be 
given from the latter :— 

“ There can be no doubt that the root of all the evils .which afflict 
Hindu society, that which constitutes the chief cause of its degradation 


THE SWAMI S LOGIC. 


43 


is Idolatry. Idolatry is the curse of Hindustan, the deadly canker that 
has eaten into the vitals of native society. It would be an insult to your 
superior education to say that you have faith in idolatry, that you still 
cherish in your hearts reverence for the gods and goddesses of the Hindu 
pantheon, or that you believe in the thousand and one absurdities of your 
ancestral creed. But however repugnant to your understanding and 
repulsive to your good sense the idolatry of your forefathers may be, 
there is not a thorough appreciation of its deadly character on moral 
grounds. It will not do to retain in the mind a speculative and passive 
disbelief in its dogmas, you must practically break with it as a dangerous 
sin and an abomination : you must give it up altogether as an unclean 
thing. You must discountenance it, discourage it, oppose it, and hunt 
it out of your country. For the sake of your souls and for the sake of 
the souls of the millions of your countrymen, come away from hateful 
idolatry, and acknowledge the one Supreme and true God, our Maker, 
Preserver, and Moral Governor, not in belief only, but in the every-day 
concerns and avocations of your life.” 

Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita : “ The mind by continually 
meditating on a material object becomes materialised.” “ As is the 
god, so is the worshipper.” The Hindus, though possessing excellent 
natural abilities, have in some respects, become as unintelligent as the 
objects of their worship. Like the lower animals, they are mainly 
guided by custom, and are the easy victims of priestcraft, believing the 
most extravagant fables, and accepting the most contradictory state¬ 
ments. 


The SwamPs Logic. 

“ Dogmas and Pegs. 

“ Unity in variety is the plan of nature, and the Hindu has recog¬ 
nized it. Other religions lay down certain fixed dogmas, and try to force 
society to adopt them. They place before society only one kind of coat 
which must fit Jack and John and Henry, all alike. If it does not fit 
John or Henry he must go without a coat to cover his body.” Page 18. 

Hindus continually forget that Illustration is not A rgument. 
Because no one kind of coat will fit every person, there must be 
variety in religion. Apply this argument to science. The Rev. 
E. P. Rice, b.a., says :— 

“ There are facts the trutlj of which cannot in the nature of things 
vary in different nations pf the world. If true at all, they are true 
everywhere and for ever. Take the facts of geography or astronomy. 
There cannot be such a thing as national geography. The earth is either 
round or flat, whichever may be proved to be the case. The fact when 
proved must be accepted in all parts of the globe. There is no distinctly 
Hindu or English or Chinese geography. Geography is geography all 
the world over. And so of astronomy, and so of history. I go further 
and say that to this same realm of universal truths belongs Religion. 
It is obvious that true religion is not a manufactured article which men 


44 


SWAMI VIVEKANANDA ON HINDUISM. 


can make in different ways according to their liking. There are not 
different Creators for the different nations of the world any more than 
there are different suns in the sky. The same God and Father rules 
over all, loves and pities all, and judges all by one impartial code, and 
there can be no contradiction in the laws which He gives for the 
guidance of His children. Duties towards God do not vary according 
to our clime any more than duties towards man. , . It is no more part 
of a patriot’s duty to maintain a religion, because it is the religion of 
his fathers than to maintain a conception of geography because it was 
the conception of his fathers. There is no nationality in Science or 
Religion. Englishman and Frenchman, German, Russian and Hindu 
ought to be at one in their aims in this sphere, viz. : to know what is 
true and to practise what is noble.”* 

Is Hinduism non-peesecuting ? 

The Swami says :— 

“The Hindus have their faults, but mark this, they are always for 
punishing their own bodies and never for cutting the throats of their 
neighbours. If the Hindu fanatic burns himself on the pyre, he does 
not light the fire of inquisition. And even this weakness of his cannot 
be laid at the door of religion any more than the burning of witches can 
be laid at the door of Christianity.” Page 19. 

It must be confessed that most religions have been persecuting. 
Stuart Mill says that “ Mankind have been unremittingly occupied 
in doing evil to one another in the name of religion, from the 
sacrifice of Iphigenia to the Dragonnades of Louis XIV. (not to 
descend lower.) More than 2400 years ago, the king of Babylon 
set up a golden image, and threatened to cast into a furnace of fire 
any who would not worship it. The Roman emperors thought they 
had a right to compel their subjects to worship any gods they 
pleased, and lakhs of Christians were put to death because they 
refused to comply. To the disgrace of some branches of the 
Christian Church, religious persecution has been practised contrary 
to the express command of its Founder. 

But Hinduism is not by any means free. In the great temple 
of Madura in South India, there is a picture of a row of Jains, 
impaled on account of their religion, with dogs licking the blood 
which is trickling down. 

In the section on the “ Tolerance and Intolerance of Hin¬ 
duism/’ it has been shown that while a man may worship or not 
worship God as he pleases; though he may charge Him with the 
foulest crimes; all thus is nothing, but let him break any of the 
laws of caste, and he is driven from his home with the curses of his 
relatives. The remarks of Stuart Mill on social tyranny have been 
quoted. 


* Patriotism. The Harvest Field. f Essays on Religion, pp. 74, 75. 




SWAMpS FLABBY NOTIONS OF RELIGIOUS TRUTH. 


45 


The SwamPs Flabby Notions of Keligious Truth. 

The Swami says :— 

“ To the Hindu, then, the whole world of religions is only a travel¬ 
ling, a coming np, of different men and women, through various conditions 
and circumstances, to the same goal. Every religion is only an evolution, 
out of the material man, of a God—and the same God is the inspirer of 
all of them. Why, then, are there so many contradictions ? They are 
only apparent, says the Hindu. The contradictions come from the 
same truth adapting itself to the different circumstances of different 
natures. 


God in all Religions. 

“ It is the same Light coming through different colors. And these 
little variations are necessary for purposes of adaptation. But in the 
heart of everything the same truth reigns. The Lord has declared to 
the Hindu in his incarnation as Krishna, * I am in every religion as the 
thread through a string of pearls.’ ” Page 1 9. 

It is asserted that the u same God is the inspirer of all 
religions.” Then theism, atheism, polytheism, pantheism, and the 
most degrading fetish worship, are all inspired by the same God ! 
The contradictions between them are “ only apparent /” As 
well might it be said, that the contradictions between light and 
darkness, virtue and vice* are “ only apparent.” The Swami 
has evidently no idea of the sanctity of truth. However, he 
expresses the general feeling of his countrymen, who compla¬ 
cently tell the missionary that Christianity and Hinduism, Christ 
and Krishna, are all the same. The same feeling is found in China. 
The word “ joss” is used for God or religion. A Chinese will say 
to a European, “ Your joss and my joss; both very good joss.” 

When we compare two objects together, we must consider the 
points in which they differ, as well as those in which they agree. 
The illustration has been used of contrasting a man and a monkey. 
On certain points Christianity and Hinduism agree; but on others 
they are diametrically opposed. This will be shown at length under 
the next section. 


HINDUISM UNVEILED. 

The SwamPs Hinduism has no existence. The Indian Nation 
says:— 

“ The pure and undefiled Hinduism which the Swami preached has no 
existence to-day, has not had existence for centuries, and is at the present 
moment only an affair of books and not of life, a thing, therefore, of 


* This, it must be allowed, is the teaching of the “ Higher Hinduism.’ 




46 


SWAMI VIVEKANANDA ON HINDUISM. 


merely abstract interest. The only Hinduism that it is practically worth 
while discussing body is sectarian Hinduism. It is that Hinduism which 
resents the slaughter of kine, which keeps out the England-returned 
Hindu, which proscribes re-marriage of widows and marriage between 
different castes, which makes the early marriage of girls compulsory. 
It is that Hinduism which is distinct from Brahmoism. It is the only 
Hinduism that we can admit to be real.” May 21st, 1894. 

The Swami, it is true made, the following acknowledgment : 

“ From the high spiritual flights of vedantic philosophy, of which 
the latest discoveries of science seem like echoes, from the agnosticism of 
the Buddhists and the atheism of the Jains to the low ideas of idolatry 
and the multifarious mythologies, each and all have a place in the 
Hindu’s religion.” Page 10. 

He also apologises for idolatry; but, on the whole, the dark 
features of Hinduism were ignored. As the Indian Nation has 
remarked, u he seized some of the commonplaces of all religions and 
tried to make them out as the differentiae, of Hinduism.” The 
same journal says that, more than that, “ he appropriated the 
doctrines and mottoes of Christianity and flung them in triumph 
at the Christians.” Some of the features of Hinduism which he 
concealed will now be unveiled. 

Prefatory Remarks. —The following exposure is not intended 
merely to hurt the feelings of any sincere believer in Hinduism. 
It is admitted that among its adherents there are men of irreproach¬ 
able morals and estimable character. Hindus, as a nation, have 
some excellent qualities. Their temperance, their patience, their 
gentleness and courtesy, their care of relations, are to be admired. 
In these respects they are superior to Europeans. 

With regard to Hinduism the late Bishop Caldwell recognises 
in it three elements :— 

1. A Human Element. —This is shown in its worship of 
heroes and heroines, its representation of God as a human king, 
with human needs, passions and tastes; its elevation of caste 
distinctions to the rank of a religious obligation. 

2. A Divine Element. —Bishop Caldwell says :— 

“ I recognise also in Hinduism a higher element, an element which, 

I cannot but regard as divine, struggling with what is earthly and evil 
in it, or what is merely human, and though frequently foiled or over¬ 
borne, never entirely destroyed. I trace the operation of this divine 
element in the religiousness—the habit of seeing God in all things and 
all things in God—which has formed so marked a characteristic of the 
people of India in every period of their history. I trace it in the conviction 
universally entertained that there is a God, however diversely His attri¬ 
butes may be conceived, through whom or in whom all things are believed 
to have their being. I trace it in the conviction that a religion—a 
method of worshipping God—is possible, desirable, necessary. I trace it in 
the conviction that man has somehow become sinful, and has separated 


HINDUISM UNVEILED. 


47 


from God, and that he needs somehow to be freed from sin and united to 
God again. But especially! trace it in the conviction I have find almost 
universally entertained by thoughtful Hindus, that a remedy for the ills 
of life, an explanation of its difficulties and mysteries, and an appoint¬ 
ment of a system of means for seeking God’s favour and rising to a 
higher life-^that is, a Veda, a revelation—is to be expected ; nay more, 
that such a revelation has been given ; the only doubt which suggests 
itself to the Hindu mind being, whether the Indian Veda is the only true 
one, or whether God may have given different revelations of His will to 
different races of men at different times. I trace the same element also 
in the important place occupied in Indian classical literature by moral 
and religious disquisitions and in Indian popular literature and common 
life by moral and religious maxims. 

“ I cannot hesitate to recognise in such movements of mind as 
these, though outside the pale of Christianity, the results of an impulse 
from above, seeing that in human society, and especially in the domain 
of morals we may always and everywhere see Divine Purpose working 
itself into shape. As a Christian I have been taught to believe that God’s 
Spirit 4 strives ’ with all men, even with bad men, for their good.” 

3. A Diabolical Element. —Some parts of Hinduism seem 
inspired by Belial himself, whom Milton thus characterises, 

“ Than whom a spirit more lewd 
Fell not from heaven, or more gross to love 
Vice for itself.” 

Bishop Caldwell says :— 

“ One of the worst things in modern India is the sensual worship 
of Krishna, as practised by some of the more enthusiastic sects, and this 
seems to run in parallel lines with one of the highest developments 
of Christian piety—the personal love of the devout soul to the Divine 
Saviour of men. That which appeared to be most truly divine in its 
original shape has become earthly, sensual, if not altogether devilish by 
contact with impure minds. Corruptions of the best things are the 
worst.”* 

Some examples of this “ diabolical element” are given hereafter. 

Missionary Slanders. —It is a favourite weapon with Hindu 
controversialists to charge their opponents with misrepresent¬ 
ation. “No case : abuse plaintiff’s attorney.” In the following 
impeachment of Hinduism the evidence will be drawn mainly from 
non missionary sources, Government Acts, the Hindu sacred 
books, Hindu writers, &c. The Swami, or anybody else, is 
challenged to prove them untrue. 

Contradictions of Hinduism. —The Mahabharata is said to 
make the following admission :— 

“ Contradictory are the Vedas ; contradictory are the Sastras ; con¬ 
tradictory are the doctrines of the holy sages.” 


# Christianity and Hinduism. 




48 


SWAMI VIVEKANANDA ON HINDUISM. 


It is allowed that precepts may be culled from Hindu sacred 
books condemning the practices which will now be exposed. The 
Bhagavata Purana, after describing the love sports of Krishna, 
warns the reader not to imitate them. All this simply proves that 
Hinduism contains a “ diabolical element,” showing that, as a 
whole, it is not the true religion. 

“ Hinduism Unveiled’’ discloses the following features :— 

Impurity. 

This is fostered in the following ways : 

1. By Obscene Sculptures and Pictures 

The Penal Code contains the following : 

“ 292. Whosoever sells or distributes, imports or prints for sale or 
hire, or wilfully exhibits to public view, any obscene book, pamphlet, 
paper, drawing, painting, representation, or figure, or attempts or offers 
so to do, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a 
term which may extend to three months, or with fine, or with both.” 

But the following exception is made : 

“ This Section does not extend to any representation sculptured, 
engraved, painted or otherwise represented on or in any temple or on any 
car used for the conveyance of idols, or kept or used for any religious 
purpose.” 

It is admitted that no such “ exception” is needed in the case 
of many temples, but especially from Orissa southwards, it is 
required. Dr. Rajendralala Mitra says that some of the statues in 
the Audience Hall of the temple of Jagannath at Puri are “ dis¬ 
gustingly obscene.”* Sir W. Hunter says, “ Lascivious sculptures 
disfigures his walls.”t 

A correspondent of the Bombay Guardian describes some of 
the temples in the Central Provinces as containing highly objec¬ 
tionable sculptures. They are commonest, however, in the south 
among the Dravidian races. 

But the emblem of Siva everywhere is the linga or phallus, 
either alone or associated with the yoni, the female organ. The 
productive power in Nature is thus supposed to be symbolized. 

It is admitted that a European unacquainted with Hinduism 
would not recognise what is meant. Further, there are Hindus in 
whom it does not excite impure ideas. On the other hand, it must 
be conceded that it is very liable to abuse. Its full meaning is 
explained in many sculptures and pictures of animals and human 
beings in sexual intercourse. The writer saw the former in a new 
temple at Trichinopoly. There were pictures of the latter in the 
great temple of Srirangam, the largest in India. They had 


* Antiquities of Orissa. Vol. II. p. 118. 
f Qazetteerlof India. Vol. X. p. 450. 




HINDUISM UNVEILED. 


49 


covered its walls for centuries; but on his next visit he found 
them obliterated by whitewash. It had been represented that 
the temple was now sometimes visited by European ladies, to 
whom such pictures were highly objectionable. 

The Hindu , a Madras paper, in its issue of July 20th, 1892, 
refers to a most disgusting representation of the same thing, by 
means of male and female figures, on three consecutive days at 
Mayavaram, a great place of pilgrimage in South India. It says :— 

“ Here is a Thambiran who belongs to an institution which is ori¬ 
ginally intended to propagate the truths of the Hindu religion, and 
inculcate piety, but who deliberately employed his ingenuity in inventing 
the most outrageous indecency, and invited the worshippers of God to 
benefit by his ingenuity. In a country where there is anything like a 
wholesome moral feeling, the author of this most wicked invention will 
be belaboured by the mob to the last breath of his life. But the religious 
folks of Mayavaram tolerated it and apparently derived amusement, if 
not edification, from this diabolical addition to the appurtenances of 
Hindu worship.” 

In its issue of April 24th 1894, a similar exhibition at Ban¬ 
galore is reprobated. 

The Indian Reformer , edited by the late Rev. Lai Behari Day, 
thus refers to the “ exception” in the Penal Code :— 

“ With Edmund Burke we have no notion of a geographical morality. 
What is immoral in England is immoral in India. The Calcutta Legisla¬ 
tive Council, however, seems to be of a different opinion. It believes in 
a local morality. It has solemnly decided that what is immoral in the 
shop is not immoral in the temple, that what is immoral in a carriage is 
not immoral in a car. 

“ One would almost suppose that our legislators were orthodox 
Hindus of the first water. There is a saying in the Hindu Shastras 
that ‘ the mighty are not to be blamed*’ It is on this ethical formula 
that Hindus exculpate their gods from the charge of immorality. 
Our legislators have, it seems, adopted this principle. What is a 
punishable crime in us, poor mortals, is no punishable crime in the 
gods. If an obscene print were stuck on our carriage we should 
be imprisoned or fined or both; if the ugly stump of a divinity, 
dignified with the appellation of the lord of the world, were to exhibit a 
thousand libidinous pictures on its car, it would not be recognizable as a 
punishable crime in the proprietors of that divinity. They would go on 
corrupting the public morals, offending the public taste, under the 
sanction of the Legislative Council.” 

That such an ct exception” is necessary, is a terrible indictment 
against Hinduism. It does not seem to be necessary in the case 
of any other religion on the face of the globe. The most degraded 
African savage does not so outrage decency. 

2. By Temple Dancing Girls, and the encouragement of Prosti- 

7 


50 


SWAMI VTVEKANANDA ON HINDUISM. 


tution. —Puri and many of the temples in South India have dancing 
girls attached to them. Dubois says :— 

“ Next to the sacrificers, the most important persons about the 
temples are the dancing girls, who call themselves deva-dasi , servants 
or slaves of the gods. Their profession requires of them to be open to the 
embraces of persons of all castes, 

“ They are bred to this profligate life from their infancy. They are 
taken from any caste, and are frequently of respectable birth. It is 
nothing uncommon to hear of pregnant women, in the belief that it will 
tend to their happy delivery, making a vow, with the consent of their 
husbands, to devote the child then in the womb, if it should turn out a 
girl, to the service to the Pagoda. And, in doing so, they imagine they 
are performing a meritorious duty. The infamous life to which the 
daughter is destined brings no disgrace on the family.” 

The dancing girls of Orissa, in a memorial to tbe Lieutenant 
Governor of Bengal, said that they “are greatly needed in pujas 
and tbe auspicious performances, and the entertainment of them 
is closely connected with the management of temples and shrines; 
from which it is evident that their existence is so related to the 
Hindu religion that its ceremonies cannot be fully performed 
without them.” 

Such women are the counterparts of the Apsaras in Indra’s 
heaven. The Yishnu Purana and the Ramayana attribute their 
origin to the churning of the Ocean. The passage in the Rama- 
yana is thus versified by Wilson : 

“ Then from the agitated deep up sprung 
The legion of Apsarases, so named 
That to the watery element they owed 
Their being. Myriads were they born, and all 
In vesture heavenly clad, and heavenly gems ; 

Yet more divine their native semblance, rich 
With all the gifts of grace, of youth and beauty, 

A train innumerous followed ; yet thus fair, 

Nor god nor demon sought their wedded love ; 

Thus Raghava! They still remain—their charms 
The common treasure of the host of heaven.” 

As stated above, when they came forth from the waters, neither 
the gods nor the Asuras would have them for wives, so they 
became common to all. They have the appellations of Suranganas, 
‘ wives of the gods/ and Sumad-atmajas, ‘daughters of pleasure/ 

Two thousand years ago the Greeks had a religion somewhat 
like that of the Hindus. Their gods fought with each other, and 
committed adultery. The temple of Yenus at Corinth had more 
than a thousand hierodouloi, “ servants of the goddess,” who were 
the ruin of many a stranger who visited the city. For several 
centuries this went on unchecked. Well might it be said by 
Bishop Lightfoot: 

“ Imagine, if you can, this licensed shamelessness, this consecrated 
profligacy, carried on under the sanction of religion and in the full 


HINDUISM UNVEILED. 


51 


blaze of publicity, while statesmen and patriots, philosophers and men of 
letters, looked on unconcerned, not uttering one word and not raising 
one finger to put it down.” 

The same remark applies to India. For twenty centuries, 
u statesmen and patriots, philosophers and men of letters” made 
no attempt to reform such a system. Under Christian influence, a 
movement has commenced against naufcch women. Dancing girls 
in temples are much more objectionable. 

Prostitution. —Hinduism is charged with encouraging Prosti¬ 
tution. In the Vishnu Purana (Book V. 20) it is recorded that at 
the games when Kansa was killed, “ separate platforms were 
erected for the ladies of the palace, for the courtesans, and for the 
wives of the citizens.” Bajendralala Mitra gives an account of 
an ancient picnic, takeu from the Harivansa Parva of the 
Mahabharata (Chap. 146, 147). The scene was at Pindaraka, a 
watering-place near Dvarka in Grujarat. It is described as a tirtha , 
or sacred pool, and the trip to it is called tirtha yatra, or a 
pilgrimage to a holy place. The substance is briefly as follows : 

“The party headed by Baladeva, Krishna, and Arjuna, issued 
forth with their families and thousands of courtezans; spent the 
day in bathing, feasting, drinking, singing and dancing; and 
returned home without performing any of the numerous rites and 
ceremonies which pilgrims are bound by the Sastras to attend to at 
sacred places.”* 

Akin to the temple dancing girls of Southern India, are the 
Murlis of the Bombay Presidency. One of the most popular gods 
is Khandoba, regarded as an incarnation of Siva. The wicked 
custom prevails of dedicating children to his service. A couple, 
having no family, vow that if Khandoba will help them, their first 
child will be his. If a boy, he grows up as “ dog of Khandoba,” 
and wanders about as a vagrant. If a girl, after undergoing 
ceremonial “purification,” she’is branded with a heated stamp, 
and is married to the god with the pomp of a Hindu marriage. 
Such women are simply prostitutes. 

3. By the Holi Festival. —This has well been called by Mr. 
M, Malabari the “ unholy Holi.” He thus describes it as celebrated 
in the Bombay Marwari Bazar : 

“ He can there see what extraordinary social antics the usually sober 
money-grubbing Marwari is capable of. How a crowd of these bhang 
intoxicated bacchanals will besiege a neighbouring zenana, by way of a 
seranade, I suppose, and shout their rude amorous ditties with significant 
gestures and attitudes. The filthy epithets, the wanton glances, the 
obscene gestures, defy description ; but these are rewarded, on the part 
of the Marwarin (Marwari women), by equally shameless retorts and the 
squirting of red paint. ”f 


Indo-Aryans, Vol. I. pp. 424, 425. f Gujarat and the Gujaratis, p. 351. 




.52 


SWAMI VIVEKANANDA ON HINDUISM. 


As in the case of the dancing girls of South India,—the Holi 
festival was observed with all its abominations for untold centuries 
without a voice being raised in its condemnation. Under Christian 
influence, there is now a movement against it, especially in the 
Punjab, where a small fortnightly journal, The Purity Servant , is 
doing excellent work. 

4. By Stories of Krishna and Krishna Worship.-— Bishop 
Caldwell justly says: “ The stories related of Krishna's life do 
more than anything else to destroy the morals and corrupt the 
imaginations of the Hindu youth."* 

Krishna is usually associated with Radha, the wife of Ayana- 
gosha. When the two were surprised by the husband, Krishna 
assumed the form of Kali, and Radha seemed as if worshipping 
her ! An adulterer and an adulteress are thus among the chief 
objects of worship in India. 

Mrs. Besant has chosen Krishna as her ishta devata; he has 
many other votaries in India. The Yallabhacharis, founded by 
Yallabha in the 16th century, are the most notorious sect of 
Krishna worshippers. Yallabha professed to have been honoured 
by a visit from Krishna in person, who then enjoined him to 
introduce the worship of the infant Krishna. 

The descendants of Yallabha, now called Maharajas, claim to 
be incarnations of Krishna, and are supposed to be privileged to 
act as he did. 

Men and women prostrate themselves at their feet, offering 
them incense, fruits, and flowers, and waving lights before them. 
It is believed that the best way of propitiating Krishna in heaven, 
is by ministering to the sensual appetites of the Maharajas. Body, 
soul, and property [tan } man , dhan), are to be wholly made over to 
them. Women are taught to believe that the highest bliss will be 
secured to themselves and their families by intercourse with the 
Maharajas. The evidence for this is incontestible. In 1862 Mr. 
Karsandas Mulji, an intelligent Yaishnava, sought to expose such 
practices, and a libel suit was instituted against him. Full evidence 
was brought forward on both sides. The following is an extract 
from the judgment of Sir Matthew Sausse, the Chief Justice :— 

“ The Maharajas have been sedulous in identifying themselves with 
the god Krishna by means of their own writings and teachings and by 
the similarity of ceremonies of worship and addresses which they require 
to be offered to themselves by their followers. All songs connected with 
the god Krishna, which were brought before us, were of an amorous 
character, and it appeared that songs of a corrupting and licentious 
tendency, both in ideas and expression, are sung by young females to the 
Maharajas, upon festive occasions, in which they are identified with the 
god in his most licentious aspect. In these songs, as well as stories, both 
written and traditional, which latter are treated as of a religious character 


# Reply to Sadagopah Charlu, 



HINDUISM UNVEILED. 


53 


in the sect, the subject of sexual intercourse is most prominent. Adultery 
is made familiar to the minds of all: it is nowhere discouraged or 
denounced ; but, on the contrary, in some of the stories, those persons 
who have committed that great moral and social offence are commended.”* 

Captain McMurdo, Resident in Cutch, in the “ Transactions of 
the Literary Society of Bombay” (now the Bombay Branch of the 
Royal Asiatic Society) says, that the Vallabhacharis have among 
themselves “ Ras Mandalis,” “ carnal love meetings,” in which they 
enjoy each other’s wives. 

“ The well-known Ras Mandalis are very frequent among them (the 
Bhattias) as among other followers of Yishnu. At these, persons of both 
sexes and all description, high and low, meet together; and under the 
name and sanction of religion, practice every kind of licentiousness.”f 

There are said to be 60 or 70 Maharajas scattered over India. 
Many of their followers are traders, who regularly tax themselves 
for their support. The Maharajas have also the occasional sources 
of income, given by Mr. Malabari:— 

For homage by sight, Rs. 5 ; for homage by touch, Rs 20 ; for the 
honour of washing the Maharaja’s foot, Rs. 35 ; for the credit of swing¬ 
ing him, Rs. 40 ; for the glory of rubbing sweet unguents on his body, 
Rs. 42 ; for the joy of sitting with him, Rs. 60 ; for the bliss of occupy¬ 
ing the same room, Rs. 50 to 500 ; for the performance of the circular 
dance, Rs. 100 to 200; for the delight of eating the pan supari thrown 
out by the Maharaja, Rs. 17; for drinking the water in which the 
Maharaja has bathed, or in which his foul linen has been washed, 
Rs. 19.+ 

Is there any parallel to such degradation to be found eveji 
among the lowest savages ? And who are the persons who were 
guilty of such practices ? Wealthy Bombay merchants ! 

The exposure in 1862 may have had some influence in putting 
an end partially to such abominations, but this is merely from 
Christian influence. 

5. By its Vamacharis. —The “ extinction of desire” is the 
grand aim of Hinduism, being supposed to secure mukti. Ascetics 
profess to seek it by mortifying , or killing desire, through fasting 
and other penances. Some are called vairagis , from a word 
meaning t( indifference” or without desire. The Yamacharis seek 
to arrive at it by gratifying desire. They drink wine, eat flesh 
and fish, indulge their lust, and are quite content; they want 
nothing further. 

Their worship includes five separate acts ; 1, The drinking of 
liquor (madya) ; 2. The eating of flesh (mansa) ; 3. The eating of 


* History of Sett of the Maharajas, p. 142. 

f Vol. II. p. 231. Quoted also in the History of the Sect of the Maharajas, p. 130. 
$ Gujarat and the Gujaratis, pp. 122-123. 



54 


SWAMI VIVEKANANDA ON HINDUISM. 


fish (matsya) ; 4. Mudra*; 5. Sexual union (mdithuna). The 
five acts are called the five Ma-k£ras, because the letter M 
begins each Sanskrit word. “The assemblage of five things 
beginning with the letter M,” says one of the Tantras, " satisfies the 
gods.” A woman perfectly naked is the chief object of worship. 
The other proceedings resemble the f ras mandalis ; already 
described. 

The liquors are of various kinds. The drinking of each kind is 
supposed to be attended with its own peculiar merit and advantage. 
Thus one liquor gives salvation, another learning, another power, 
another wealth, another destroys enemies, another cures diseases, 
another removes sin, another purifies the soul. 

In Saktism (goddess-worship) says Monier Williams, “ we are 
confronted with the worst results of the worst superstitious ideas 
that have ever disgraced and degraded the human race. It is by 
offering to woman the so-called homage of sensual love and carnal 
passion, and by yielding free course to all the grosser appetites, 
wholly regardless of social rules and restrictions, that the worship¬ 
pers of the female power (Sakti) in Nature seek to gratify the 
goddess representing that power, and through her aid to acquire 
supernatural faculties, and even ultimately to obtain union with 
the Supreme Being.” 

A translation of a Tantra, published in Calcutta in 1887, is 
now before the writer.f It contains directions unutterably vile ; 
yet they are said to “ give emancipation even when one is 
immersed in sensuality.”^ 

Elsewhere it is said :— 

“ He who practises Yoni-Mudra is not polluted by sin, were he to 
murder thousand Brahmans or kill all the inhabitants of the three 
worlds : 

“ Were he to kill his Guru or drink wine, or commit theft, or violate 
the bed of his Guru, he is not to suffer for any of these transgressions.” 

Monier Williams adds:— 

incredible as it may appear, these so-called worshippers actually 
affect to pride themselves on their debasing doctrines, while they main¬ 
tain that their creed is the grandest of all religions, because to indulge 
the grosser appetites and passions, with the mind fixed on union with 
the Supreme Being, is believed to be highest of all pious achievements. 
Indeed, according to the distorted ideas and perverted phraseology of 
the sect, all who are uninitiated into their system are styled ‘ beasts’ 
(pasu), the initiated being called Siddha, 1 the perfect ones.’ ” 


* This term means fried grain. It also denotes the mystical intertwining of the 
fingers. 

fThe name is withheld to avoid making the book known. 

% Brahmanism and Hinduism, p 190,191. 



CRUELTY. 


55 


The foregoing remarks apply only to the Vamacharis, " fol¬ 
lowers of the left hand path.” The Dakshina-Margis, “ followers 
of the right hand path,” are not guilty of such vile practices. 

Cruelty. 

This may be shown uuder the following heads :— 

1. The Treatment of Widows. —The strong generally seek 
to tyrannise over the weak. AmongfBavages, women do all the 
hard work : men, when not fighting or hunting, are smoking, drink¬ 
ing, or sleeping. Hindus have reached a higher state of civilisa¬ 
tion ; but in their treatment of women they display much of the same 
spirit. Men, for Itheir own selfish ends, have, from early times, 
taught women in India to surrender all their rights, and to submit 
themselves in every way to the wishes of their lords and masters. 

The denial' of education was a grievous wrong inflicted upon 
all women. It was the crowning device of Hinduism. So long 
as women were kept in ignorance, they would swallow the most 
astounding fables regarding the power of the Brahmans, and be 
eager to carry out every superstitious observance which was 
enjoined. 

But the oppression of women culminated in the case of 
widows, who were especially helpless, having no husbands to 
protect them. Their treatment by Hindus is the foulest blot upon 
their character. It is only aggravated by the excuse which is 
offered. Caird justly says: “ The worst of all wrongs to humanity 
is to hallow evil by the authority and sanction of religion.” 

The Honourable Mr. Justice Ranade thus refers to the injustice 
of forbidding widows to marry: 

“ A Hindu widow may not remarry. Against the child-widow 
the rule prohibiting re-marriage is enforced with inexorable rigour. 
For them there is no relaxation of this law, no pity, no sympathy. But 
the old Hindu widower, who is shuddering on the verge of the grave, 
may marry again and again, as often as he likes. For him there is no 
restriction—he is under no obligation to exercise self-restraint.” 

The other wrongs of widows are thus exposed :— 

“ The child-widow must fast on every eJcadasi day ; if she is a 
Brahman she must not take even a drop of water. She may die of 
hunger or thirst, but society has no compassion to show her. She is a 
Brahmacharini. The widower, however, may eat what he likes or how 
often he likes ; he need not fast on the ekadasi day ; he need not con¬ 
fine himself to one meal a day. He is not a Brahmachari. The widow 
is a Brahmacharini. The widower is a man of the wo Id. The widow 
lives for the benefit of the soul of her deceased lord. Why this distinc¬ 
tion between the widower and the widow ? Why this hard treatment 
dealt out to the widow from which the widower is exempt P Under 
what moral law, under what divine mandate is this inequality of treat¬ 
ment sought to be justified ? We know of none, we can think of none. 


56 


SWAMI VIVEKANANDA ON HINDUISM. 


To our mind it is an illustration of the tyranny of the strong ruthlessly 
exercised over the weak. This huge blot must be wiped out—the curse 
of God must rest upon a society which from generation to generation 
observes a custom which involves a huge injustice, and which is degrad¬ 
ing to the higher life of humanity.”* 

Widow Burning.— The barbarous treatment of women in India 
reached its climax in widow burning. That sons should burn their 
mothers alive when they became widows, seems too horrible an idea 
to enter the mind. Yet Hin Jhs, in the nineteenth century, contend¬ 
ed earnestly for the privilege. 

In Vedic times widow-burning was not practised, and there is 
not a single verse authorising it. The Brahmans, however, sought to 
support it by the wilful mistranslation of a text. Max Muller says: 
tc This is perhaps the most flagrant instance of what can be done by 
V an unscrupulous priesthood.” 

To induce widows to submit to death in this cruel manner, life 
was made bitter to them in every conceivable way. This, however, 
was not sufficient, so they were told that they would not only be 
preeminently virtuous, but enjoy happiness for almost endless ages 
in another world if they burnt themselves with the dead bodies of 
their husbands. 

“ The wife who commits herself to the flames with her husband’s 
corpse, shall equal Arundhati and reside in Swarga.” 

‘‘ Accompanying her husband she shall reside so long in Swarga as 
there are 35 millions of hairs on the human body.” 

Another text says : 

“The woman who follows her husband expiates the sins of three 
races ; her father’s line, her mother’s line, and the family of him to whom 
she was given a virgin.” 

The consequences of not observing this injunction are thus 
stated : 

“ As long as a woman shall not burn herself after the death of her 
husband, she shall be subject to transmigration in a female form.”f 

In 1829, Lord William Bentinck, after suitable inquiries, passed 
a regulation declaring the practice of Sati J illegal and punishable 
in the Criminal Courts. The Hindus got up a memorial to Govern¬ 
ment, affirming that the act of immolation was not only a sacred 
duty but an exalted privilege, and denouncing the regulation as a 
breach of the promise that there should be no interference with the 
religious customs of the Hindus. Lord William Bentinck refused 
to suspend the operation of the Act, but offered to transmit their 
representation to the Privy Council. RammohunRoy was in England 


* Madras Social Science Conference Address, 1894. 
f English. Works of Rammohun Hoy, Vol. I., p. 302. 
j Sati from sat t good, pure. 




CRUELTY, 


57 


when the subject came before the Privy Council, and the appeal 
was dismissed. 

2. Hook-swinging, Tongue-piercing, etc.— Some of the Hindu 

divinities, like Kali, are supposed to be pleased when their worship¬ 
pers torture themselves. The Charak Puja is said to be held in 
commemoration of an interview with Siva which an ancient king 
obtained through his great austerities. It is so called from the hook¬ 
swinging which formerly constituted the principal part of the 
festival. Cases of it resulting in death, has caused it to be forbidden 
by the British Government. 



The picture above represents some of the cruel customs which 
took place at the Charak Puja in Bengal. One man has passed an 
iron rod through the flesh of his left arm, which he moves about 
to enlarge the wound and cause the blood to flow. The second has 
passed the handle of a fire shovel, full of burning coals, through 
the flesh of his side, and dances with it. The third has made a 
hole in his tongue through which he has passed a live serpent; and 
by pinching its tail he causes it to writhe about, increasing his own 
suffering. Another custom was to throw themselves down from a 
bamboo platform upon knives that were so arranged that they fell 
down under the weight of the body. As the goddess delights in 
blood, such tortures are supposed to give her pleasure. Like hook- 


8 












58 


9WAMI VTVEKANANDA ON HINDUISM. 


swinging, they have now largely disappeared. But Dr. Rajendralala 
Mitra thus refers to a common custom in Bengal:— 

“ The offering of one’s own blood to the goddess is a mediaeval and 
modern rite. It is made by women, and there is scarcely a respectable 
house in all Bengal, the mistress of which has not, at one time or other, 
shed her blood under the notion of satisfying the goddess by the operation. 
Whenever her husband or a son is dangerously ill, a vow is made that, 
on the recovery of the patient, the goddess would be regaled with human 
blood, and in the first Durga Puja following, or at the temple at Kali- 
ghat, or at some other sacred fane, the lady performs certain ceremonies, 
and then bares her breast in the presence of the goddess, and with a nail- 
cutter (naruna) draws a few drops of blood from between her busts, and 
offers them to the divinity.”* 

3. Human Sacrifices. —This subject has been carefully in¬ 
vestigated by Dr. Rajendralala Mitra, the most distinguished 
Indian scholar of modern times, in a paper originally published in 
the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. Some maintain that 
human sacrifices are not authorised in the Vedas, but were intro¬ 
duced in later times. Dr. R. Mitra says : ({ As a Hindu writing 
on the actions of my forefathers—remote as they are—it would have 
been a source of great satisfaction to me if I could adopt this con¬ 
clusion as true ; but I regret I cannot do so consistently with my 
allegiance to the cause of history.” 

His paper on the subject occupies 84 pages in his Indo-Aryans, 
giving numerous quotations both in Sanskrit and English. The 
following is only a brief summary. Dr. R. Mitra first describes the 
prevalence of human sacrifices in all parts of the world, both in 
ancient and modern times. He adds : a Benign and humane as was 
the spirit of the ancient Hindu religion, it was not all opposed to 
animal sacrifice; on the contrary, most of the principal rites 
required the immolation of large numbers of various kinds of beasts 
and birds. One of the rites enjoined required the performer to 
walk deliberately into the depth of the ocean to drown himself to 
death. This was called Mahaprasthana , and is forbidden in the 
present age. Another, an expiatory one, required the sinner to 
burn himself to death, on a blazing pyre—the Tushanoda. This has 
not yet been forbidden. The gentlest of beings, the simple-minded 
women of Bengal, were for a long time in the habit of consigning 
their first-born babes to the sacred river Ganges at Sagar Island, 
and this was preceded by a religious ceremony, though it was not 
authorised by any of the ancient rituals. If the spirit of the 
Hindu religion has tolerated, countenanced or promoted such acts, 
it would not be by any means unreasonable or inconsistent, to 
suppose that it should have, in primitive times, recognised the 
slaughter of human beings as calculated to appease, gratify, and 
secure the grace of the gods.” 


Indo Aryans, Yol. II. pp. Ill, 112. 



CRUELTY. 


59 


But to turn from presumptive evidence to the facts recorded in 
the Vedas. The earliest reference to human sacrifice occurs in the 
first book of the Rig-Veda. It contains seven hymns supposed to 
have been recited by one Sunahsepa when he was bound to a 
stake preparatory to being immolated. The story is given in the 
Aitareya Brahmana of the Rig-Veda. 

Harischandra had made a vow to sacrifice his first-born to 
Varuna, if that deity would bless him with children. A child was 
born, named Rohita, and Varuna claimed it; but the father evaded 
fulfilling his promise under various pretexts until Rohita, grown up 
to man’s estate, ran away from home, when Varuna afflicted the 
father with dropsy. At last Rohita purchased one Sunahsepa from 
his father Ajigarta for a hundred cows. When Sunahsepa had 
been prepared, they found nobody to bind him to the sacrificial 
post. Then Ajigarta said, " Give me another hundred, and I 
shall bind him.” They gave him another hundred cows, and he 
bound him. When Sunahsepa had been prepared and bound, 
when the Apri hymns had been sung, and he had been led round 
the fire, they found nobody to kill him. Next Ajigarta said, 
“ Give me another hundred, and I shall kill him.” They gave him. 
another hundred, and he came whetting his knife. Sunahsepa 
then recited the hymns praising Varuna, who set him free. 

This story shows that human sacrifices were really offered. If 
Harischandra had simply to tie his son to a post, and after repeat¬ 
ing a few mantras over him, let him off perfectly sound, he could 
easily have done so. 

Max Muller says that the story in the Aitareya Brahmana 
shows that, at that early time, the Brahmans were familiar with 
the idea of human sacrifices, and that men who were supposed to 
belong to the caste of the Brahmans were ready to sell their sons 
for that purpose. 

Dr. Mitra also refers to the Narabali, or human sacrifice to 
the goddess Chamunda, or Chandika,—a dark, fierce sanguinary 
divinity, a form of Kali. 

The Kalika Purana says : “ By a human sacrifice attended by 
the forms laid down, Devi remains gratified for a thousand years, 
and by a sacrifice of three men one hundred thousand years.” A 
human sacrifice is described as atibali (highest sacrifice.) “ The 
fact is well known,” says Dr. R. Mitra, “that for a long time the 
rite was common all over Hindustan; and persons are not wanting 
who suspect that there are still nooks and corners in India where 
human victims are occasionally slaughtered for the gratification 
of the Devi.” 

In proof of the above it may be mentioned that early in 1895 
a man in the Godavari District dashed a child’s brain out against 
the trunk of a tree. In his defence the murderer said that he had 
been enjoined by the goddess Kali to offer a human sacrifice. 


60 


SWAMI VIVEKANANDA ON HINDUISM. 


In 1845 the British Government had to appoint a special agent 
for the suppression of human sacrifice among the Khonds. They 
believed that their harvests would fail unless a human sacrifice 
was offered to the Earth-goddess. 

Sacrifice of Children at Ganga Sagar.—The Swami gives the 
following example of the way in which “ abusive missionaries / 1 
slander ‘‘the Hindus, the most moral race in the world.” 

“ What is meant by those pictures in the school books for children 
where the Hindu mother is painted as throwing her children to the croco¬ 
diles in the Ganges ? The mother is black, but the baby is painted white, 
to arouse more sympathy, and get more money.” 



The picture which so excited the mild Swami is given above. It 
is true that baby is white, but this was done by the engraver, not 
to arouse more sympathy, but simply to show it better. Had it 
been dark, it could scarcely have been distinguished by children. 
Is any one such an idiot as to suppose that a “black mother” 
would have a white child ? 

The other tales of “ abusive missionaries” may be on as slen¬ 
der a foundation. 

On the other hand, it may be said that ready credence is 
given by some Hindus to any cock and bull stories to the prejudice 
of Europeans. The Arya Patrika , a Punjab paper, has the follow¬ 
ing, quoted, it would appear, from a Calcutta journal. Not only do 
the English slaughter and eat animals, 

“ They flay them alive—horses, sheep, dogs, cats, and so on. Some of 
them are first starved to lessen their powers of resistance, and when 
exhausted with hunger and fatigue are nailed to boards and stripped of 
their coats alive and left to die as well as they can. In short, no animals 
of value as (sic) spared this cruel fate, and as a Calcutta paper remarks, 




CRUELTY. 01 

all this is don© under the very nose of Christiandom (sic.)’* October 
24, 1885. 

The origin of these sacrifices was as follows. When a woman, 
long married, had no children, it was common for her to make a 
vow to the goddess Ganga, that if she would bestow the blessing 
of children, the first-born would be devoted to her. The 
mother herself offered her child, and if it was devoured by a 
crocodile, it was supposed that the goddess accepted the offering. 

Like Sati, this dreadful superstition had been practised in 
parts of Bengal and Orissa for untold generations. It aroused the 
attention of the missionary Carey. Hitherto the British Govern¬ 
ment had permitted human sacrifices, wherever it was alleged by 
orthodox Hindus that they were sanctioned by the Sastras. Lord 
Wellesley was the first Governor-General to break through this 
system of guilty connivance. Carey was asked to examine the 
authorities which were said to enjoin such a custom. In his report 
he urged the immediate abolition of the practice. In August, 
1802, the drowning of children at Sagar was forbidden under 
severe penalties. At the next festival sepoys were stationed at 
Sagar to enforce the orders of Government. It has been so com¬ 
pletely forgotten that some assert that it never was practised. 

4. Thuggism. —Thugs were professional murderers who wor¬ 
shipped the goddess Kali, or Devi. They existed in large numbers 
in many parts of India for more than two thousand years. Divine 
sanction was claimed for their horrible trade. It was said that the 
goddess gave their ancestors waistbands with which to destroy, 
first demons, and then men, by strangulation. “ I am a Thug of 
the royal records,” said one of these murderers; “ I and my fathers 
have been Thugs for twenty generations.” 

Before going on their expeditions, Thugs made offerings to the 
goddess, and carefully attended to the omens through which they 
supposed that she made known her wishes. They assumed many 
disguises, and there was nothing to distinguish them from ordinary 
travellers. A party of them would accost a way-farer going home¬ 
wards, from a journey. Cheerful talk and song would win his heart, 
and he would tell them freely of his private affairs, of his wife and 
children he was going to meet after long years of absence, toil and 
suffering. Watching a favourable opportunity in the skirts of some 
jungle, one of them would throw his turban cloth round the neck of 
their victim. Another seizing the other end of the cloth would draw 
it tightly round; whilst a third would seize the man by the legs and 
throw him down on the ground. The work was quickly done. The 
body was then stripped, the property secured, and very soon the 
corpse was buried. The Thugs would afterwards kindle a fire around 
the grave, and feast as heartily, sing as merrily, and sleep as soundly 
as if they had committed an act of the greatest merit. No compunc¬ 
tions visited the Thugs. An English officer asked one of them, “Did 


62 


SWAMI VIVEKANANDA ON HINDUISM. 


you never feel pity for the old men, and young children whom you 
murdered while they were sitting quietly by you?” “ Never,” 
was the answer. 

When Thuggee was brought under the notice of the British 
Government, Lord William Bentinck appointed Colonel Sleeman, 
wit h several assistants, to take measures for its suppression. Within 
a few years this abominable system was destroyed. 

Although the above barbarities are now largely things of the 
past, their cessation is due to a Christian Government—not to 
Hinduism. 

Injustice. 

The injustice of Hinduism in its treatment of widows has already 
been pointed out in the scathing words of Mr. Justice Ranade. 
Caste, another blot, affects the whole population. It is the cbarac- 
teristic feature ot‘ Hinduism. “The Hindu”, says Sherring, “by day 
and night, at home or abroad, in waking, sleeping, eating, drinking, 
in all the customs of the society in which he moves, and in the events 
determining his entire life, is always under its pervading and over¬ 
mastering influence.”* 

The Code op Manu is the highest law authority among the 
Hindus. The following are some extracts from it on the subject of 
Caste:— 

Origin op the Four Castes. 

“ Now for the prosperity of the worlds, he (Brahmd) from his mouth, 
arms, thighs and feet created the Brahma, Kshatriva, Vaisya, and 
Sudra.” Book 1.31. 

Brahmans. 

93. Since he sprang from the most excellent part, since he was the 
first-born, and since he holds the Vedas, the Brahman is, by right, the 
lord of all this creation. 

100. Thus whatever exists in the universe is all the property of the 
Brahman; for the Brahman is entitled to all by his superiority and 
eminence of birth. 

380. Certainly (the king) should not slay a Brahman even if he be 
occupied in crime of every sort; but he should put him out of the realm 
in possession of all his property, and uninjured (in body). Book I. 

Sadr as. 

413. But a Sudra, whether bought or not bought, (the Brahman) 
may compel to practise servitude; for that (Sudra) was created by the 
Self-existent merely for the service of the Brahman. 

417. A Brahman may take possession of the goods of a Sudra with 


* Hindu Tribes and Castes . 



INJUSTICE. 


63 


perfect peace of mind, for, since nothing at all belongs to this (Sudra) 
as his own, he is one whose property may be taken away by his master. 
Book VIII. 

125. The leavings of food should be given (him) and the old 
clothes ; so too the blighted part of the grain ; so too the old furniture. 
Book X. 

270. If a (man) of one birth assault one of the twice-born oastes 
with virulent words, he ought to have his tongue cut out, for he is of 
the lowest origin. 

281. If a low-born man endeavours to sit down by the side of a 
high-born man, he should be banished after being branded on the hip, 
or (the king) may cause his backside to be cut off. Book VIII. 

80. One may not give advice to a Sudra, nor (give him) the 
remains (of food) or (of) batter that has been offered. And one may 
not teach him the law or enjoin upon him (religious) observances. 

81. For he who tells him the law and he who enjoins upon him 
(religious) observances, he indeed, together with that (Sudra) sinks 
into the darkness of the hell called Asamvrtta (unbounded.) Book IV. 

“ National Congresses,” regarded with enthusiasm, would be 
impossible under Manu’s caste regulations. Sudras compose the 
great majority of the population; but if they presumed to attend 
and sit in the presence of the “ twice-born,” banishment and 
mutilation would be the reward of their presumption. 

Let any one, after reading the above, say whether caste is 
founded on truth and justice. It is a system devised by cunning 
men to enslave their fellow-countrymen, and is based on a blasphe¬ 
mous falsehood. It “ involves,” says Principal Caird, “the worst 
of all wrongs to humanity—that of hallowing evil by the authority 
and sanction of religion.” 

Evils of Caste. —It is granted that caste has some advantages. 
It promotes a stationary semi-civilisation. It makes a man or 
member of a larger family, having the same interests, and bound to 
help one another. It promotes cleanliness, and, in certain direc¬ 
tions, it is a check on moral conduct. 

The chief apologists for caste are now some Europeans, one 
of the latest being Mrs. Besant. Sir Lepel Griffin says, “ a wise 
policy would encourage and not stifle it.” The object is to pro¬ 
mote disunion, so that English rule may be permanent.* 

The Indian Messenger referring to Mr. H. J. S. Cotton’s remarks 
on the subject in New India , said that persons born and brought up 
under it knew its effects better than Europeans. 

The following opinions from distinguished Indians may be 
quoted. 

Dr. Bhandarkar :— 

“The caste system is at the root of the political slavery of India.” 


* Asiatic Quarterly Review , Yol. I. p. 467. 




64 


SWAMI VIVEKANANDA ON HINDUISM. 


P audit Sivanath Sastri :— 

(1) It has produced disunion and discord. (2) It has made honest 
manual labour contemptible in this country. (3) It has checked internal 
and external commerce. (4) It has brought on physical degeneracy by 
confining marriage within narrow circles. (5) It has been a source of 
conservatism in every thing. (6) It has suppressed the development 
of individuality and independence of character. (7) It has helped in 
developing other injurious customs, such as early marriage, the charging 
of heavy matrimonial fees, &c. (8) It has successfully restrained the 

growth and development of national worth ; whilst allowing opportunity 
of mental and spiritual culture only to a limited number of privileged 
people, it has denied these opportunities to the majority of the lower 
classes, consequently it has made the country negatively a loser. (9) It 
has made the country fit for foreign slavery by previously enslaving 
the people by the most abject spiritual tyranny. 

Keshub Ghunder Sen :— 

“ That Hindu caste is a frightful social scourge no one can deny. It 
has completely and hopelessly wrecked social unity, harmony, and happi¬ 
ness, and for centuries it has opposed all social progress. But few seem 
to think that it is not so much as a social but as a religious institution 
that it has become the great scourge it really is. As a system of absurd 
social distinctions, it is certainly pernicious. But when we view it on 
moral grounds it appears as a scandal to conscience, and an insult to 
humanity, and all our moral ideas and sentiments rise to execrate it, and 
to demand its immediate extermination. Caste is the bulwark of Hindu 
idolatry and the safeguard of Brahminical priesthood. It is an audacious 
and sacrilegious violation of God’s law of human brotherhood. It makes 
civil distinctions inviolable divine institutions, and in the name of the 
Holy God sows perpetual discord and enmity among his children ! It 
exalts one section of the people above the rest, gives the former, under 
the seal of divine sanction, the monopoly of education, religion and all 
the advantages of social pre-eminence, and visits them with the arbitrary 
authority of exercising a tyrannical sway over unfortunate and helpless 
millions of human souls trampling them under their feet and holding 
them in a state of miserable servitude. It sets up the Brahminical order 
as the very vicegerents of the Deity and stamps the mass of the popula¬ 
tion as a degraded and unclean race, unworthy of manhood and unfit for 
heaven.”* 

Sherring rightly styles Caste, “ A gigantic conspiracy against 
the Brotherhood of Man.” 

The Degraded Position of Women. 

The Position of Women a Test of Civilization. — “ When we 
are seeking,” says Gladstone, “ to ascertain the measure of that con¬ 
ception which any given race has formed of our nature, there is, 
perhaps, no single test so effective as the position which it assigns 


* Appeal to Young India. 



THE DEGRADED POSITION OF WOMEN. 


65 


to women. For, as the law of force is the law of the brute creation, 
so, in proportion as he is under the yoke of that law, does man 
approximate to the brute ; and in proportion, on the other hand, 
as he has escaped from its dominion, is he ascending into the 
higher sphere of being, and claiming relationship with Deity.” 

The cruel treament of widows has already been exposed. The 
general opinion entertained of women for at least two thousand 
years will now be shown. 

Women in Vedic Times. —Dr. Muir, in his Sanskrit Texts , 
does not point out any hymns going into detail regarding the 
position of women : it can be inferred only from incidental re¬ 
ferences. He says, “ There are in the hymns traces of the existence 
of polygamy, though it was no doubt the exception and monogamy 
the rule.” A Rishi is mentioned who married all at once ten 
damsels. Polyandry seems also to have known, though probably 
rare. The two Asvins had one wife. 

Weber says, “ As regards love, its tender ideal element is not 
very conspicuous; it rather bears throughout the stamp of an 
undisguised natural sensuality. Marriage is, however, held 
sacred; husband and wife are both rulers of the house ( dampati ), 
and approach the gods in united prayer.” 

Dr. Muir, referring to one of the hymn writers, says, “ The 
general opinion of the poet’s contemporaries in regard to the 
female sex appears to be intimated in the following words put into 
the mouth of Indra viii. 33, 17 : Indras chid gha tad abravit , 
striydh asasya manah \ uto aha kratum raghum | “ Indra declar¬ 
ed that the mind of a woman was ungovernable and her temper 
fickle.” 

The Mahabharata. —Dr. Muir quotes from the work various 
estimates of women, both laudatory and the reverse. 

Woman in Manu’s Code. —This contains the fullest details re¬ 
garding the position of women in ancient times. Some extracts 
are given below : 

Women to be Honoured : 55. Women are to be honoured and 
adorned by fathers and brothers, by husbands, as also by brothers-in-law 
who desire much prosperity. 

56. Where women are honoured, there the gods rejoice; but 
where they are not honoured, there all rites are fruitless. 

57- Where women grieve, that family quickly perishes ; but where 
they do not grieve, that (family) ever prospers. 

58. Houses which women, not honoured, curse, those, as if blighted 
by magic, perish utterly. 

59. Therefore they are ever to be honoured at ceremonies and 
festivals, with ornaments, clothes, and food, by men who desire wealth.” 
Book. III. 


9 


66 


SWAMI VIVEKANANDA ON HINDUISM. 


Women are to be honoured for selfish reasons, by those who 
“ desire much prosperity/’ &c. 

Evil Qualities of Women .—The bed, the seat, adornment, desire, 
wrath, deceitfulness, proneness to injure and bad morals, Manu (the 
Creator) ordained for women. IX. 17. 

The first three imply love of sleep, laziness, and vanity. 

Women always to be under Control. —Day and night should women 
be kept by the male members of the family in a state of dependence. In 
pursuits to which they are too devoted they should be restrained under 
the husband’s power. 

The father guards them in childhood, the husband guards them in 
youth, in old age the sons guard them. A woman ought not to be in a 
state of independence. IX. 2, 3. 

A Husband should not eat with his wife. —One should not eat with 
(his) wife, nor look at her eating, sneezing, yawning, or sitting at her 
ease. IV. 43. 

How a Wife may be Punished .—A wife, son, slave, pupil, and own 
brother should, when they have committed faults, be beaten with a cord 
or a bamboo cane. 

But on the back of the body (only), never on a noble part: if one 
should smite them on any other part than that, he would incur the sin of 
a thief. VIII. 299, 300. 

At a meeting in Calcutta on “ Hindu Marriage Customs,” a 
speaker quoted Manu as laying down the rule, “ Strike not, even 
with a blossom, a wife guilty of a hundred faults.” No reference 
was given. If there is such a passage, it is in direct contradiction 
to the above. 

The Husband like the Wife’s God. —Though of bad conduct or 
debauched, or even devoid of (good) qualities, a husband must always 
be served like a god by a good wife. IX. 154. 

No Religious Duties for Women. —For women there is no separate 
sacrifice, nor vow, nor even fast; if a woman obeys her husband, by that 
she is exalted in heaven. 

The good wife of a husband, be he living or dead, (if) she desire the 
world (where her) husband (is), must never do any thing disagreeable 
(to him). V. 155, 156. 

No religious ceremony for women should be (accompanied) by mantras 
(except marriage),—with these words the rule of right is fixed; for 
women being weak creatures, and having no (share in the) mantras , are 
falsehood itself. So stands the law. IX. 18. 

It is the duty of women, however, to tend the sacred fire. 

Skanda Purana: 

Let a wife who wishes to perform sacred oblations, wash the feet 
of her lord, and drink the water ; for a husband is to a wife greater than 
Siva or Vishnu. The husband is her god, her priest, and religion ; 
wherefore abandoning everything else, she ought chiefly to worship her 
husband.” IV. 35. 


PALTERING WITH TRUTH. 


67 


Hindu Tales. —Professor Wilson says : 

“ The greater number of them turn upon the wickedness of women, 
the luxury, profligacy, treachery, the craft of the female sex. 

A traveller was told in India that tbe Hindus agreed only in 
two things : the sanctity of cows and the depravity of women.” 

A few learned men long ago taught their wives or daughters 
to read Sanskrit works, just as Ramabhai's father did in recent 
times; but, as a rule, women were condemned to ignorance. This 
was the crowning device of the Brahmans. So long as women were 
ignorant they would swallow the most astounding fables regarding 
the power of their spiritual guides, and would be eager to carry out 
every superstitious rite that was enjoined. Female education 
among Hindus originated with Missionaries. In some districts 
to the present time not more than one in a thousand can read. 

Paltering with Truth. 

Madame Blavatsky selected as a motto for her journal, The 
Theosophistj “ There is no Religion higher than Truth.” Mrs. 
Besant has recently expressed her strong detestation of lying. 
Probably she does not know that Krishna, her ishta devata , accord¬ 
ing to the Hindu sacred books, was himself a liar, and sanctioned 
falsehood in certain cases. He says in the Mahabharata :— 

“ One who speaks truth is righteous. There is nothing higher than 
truth. Behold, however, truth as practised is exceedingly difficult to be 
understood as regards its essential attributes. Truth may be unutterable, 
and even falsehood may be utterable when falsehood would become truth 
and truth would become falsehood. In a situation of peril of life and in 
marriage, falsehood becomes utterable. In a situation involving the loss 
of one’s entire property, falsehood becomes utterable. On an occasion of 
marriage, or of enjoying a woman, or when life is in danger, or when one’s 
entire property is about to be taken away, or for the sake of a Brahman, 
falsehood may be uttered. These five kinds of falsehood have been 
declared to be sinless.”*' 

Krishna himself employed one of these “ sinless falsehoods.” 
In the Drona Parva of the Mahabharata, he says:— 

“ Casting aside virtue, ye sons of Pandu, adopt now some contri¬ 
vance for gaining the victory, so that Drona of the golden car may not 
slay us all in battle; upon the fall of (his son) Aswatthaman he will 
cease to fight, I think. Let some man therefore tell him that Aswattha¬ 
man has been slain in battle. This advice* however, 0 king was not 
approved by Kunti’s son Dhananjaya (Arjuna). Others approved of it. 
But Yudhishtira accepted it with difficulty.”! 

On account of Yudhishtira's telling a lie at the suggestion of 


* Pratab Chandra Roy’s Translation, p. 253. 
f Pratab Chandra Roy’s Translation, p. 627. 



68 


SWAMI VIVEKANANDA ON HINDUISM. 


Krishna, he was punished by a sight of the lost in hell on his way 
to heaven. 

Krishna’s doctrine about the “five sinless falsehoods” is 
confirmed by Manu. 

“ In (regard to) love affairs, marriages, food for cows, fuel, and in 
giving aid to a Brahman, there is no sin in an oath.” VIII. 112. 

Parallel passages from Vasishta and G-autama show that a 
false oath is here meant. The wood is for sacrifice. 

Religion and Morality are Divorced. 

The Indian Messenger says :— 

“ In this land of mysticism, religion has long been dissociated in the 
popular mind from ordinary human conduct. To hundreds and thousands 
of people, religion is a something apart from the moral conduct of a 
person. He may be mean, or selfish, or untruthful, he may cheat his 
neighbour or rob the poor widow, yet if he performs a number of acts 
prescribed in the Shastras, or go through the ordinances of the current 
faith or spends some hours of the day in sentimental ecstacies, he con¬ 
soles himself with the belief that he has fulfilled the best conditions of 
religious life.” Nov. 27, 1892. 

The same opinion is expressed by Bishop Caldwell:— 

“ The duties of life are never inculcated in any Hindu temple. The 
discharge of those duties is never represented as enjoined by the gods, 
nor are any prayers ever offered in any temple for help to enable the 

worshippers to discharge those duties aright.Hence we often see 

religion going in one direction and morality in another. We meet with 
a moral Hindu who has broken altogether away from religion; and what 
is still more common, yet still more extraordinary, we meet with a 
devout Hindu who lives a flagrantly immoral life. In the latter case no 
person sees any inconsistency between the immorality and the devout¬ 
ness.” 

The well-known story of Ajamala is a proof of this. Although 
said to have been guilty of the greatest crimes, simply because, 
in the hour of death, he had called his son Narayana to give him 
some water, Vishnu’s messengers rescued him from Yama, and 
carried him off to Vaikuntha. 

Buddhism has been described as “ Morality without God,” so 
Hinduism may be characterised as “ God without Morality.” 

The Eternal Distinction between Virtue and Vice is Denied. 

Dr. Kellogg says :— 

14 That sin has a 4 practical’ existence, as also righteousness, that 
sin tends to misery and may bring the sinner to hell for a season; and 
that virtue tends to happiness, and may bring the virtuous man to 


THE ETEBNAI* DISTINCTION BETWEEN VIRTUE AND VICE DENIED. 69 


heaven, also only for a season,—is by all admitted. This must all be 
conceded for the satisfaction of conscience, which, in India as elsewhere, 
tells of sin* and warns of retribution. . . . Nevertheless, it is argued 
that in reality both sin and righteousness are alike evil. For, according 
to Hindu assumptions, every action, good or bad, necessitates a future 
birth and life in which the fruit of that action may be reaped. But 
personal existence, all agree is an evil. Its continuance under any 
form is not to be desired. Therefore that which makes it necessary 
must also be an evil, even that righteous act which makes it neces¬ 
sary for me to be born again into the world that I may reap its 
reward. Thus the distinction of right and wrong is not inherent and 
absolute, but accidental and relative to the present life. The murder or 
uncleanness which is wrong for me may be right for another person. No 
idea is more familiar to the common people in India than this. If, for 
example, the missionary object to the deity of Krishna on account of his 
unspeakable licentiousness, acts so vile that no man would be justified 
even in the eyes of a Hindu in repeating them, the disputant will 
probably refer to a passage in the Bhagavat Purana, wherein the 
worshipper of Krishna is commanded not to imitate the deeds to the 
accounts of which he listens. What was right for Krishna, may be, nay, 
is wrong for us; and to confirm this doctrine the Hindu, if of North 
India, will probably quote from the Ramayana the words familiar to 
every Hindi-speaking Hindu, Samaratfii Kahan nahin dosha Gusain, 
“ To the mighty, 0 Gusafn, is no sin; i.e ., in Western phraseology ‘might 
makes right/ The same doctrine as to the nature of sin and virtue is 
expressed in a song of South India* as follows :—f 

“ To them that fully know the heavenly truth, 

There is no good or ill; nor anything 
To be desired, unclean, or purely clean. 

Where God is seen, there can be nought but God. 

His heart can have no place for fear or shame ; 

For caste, uncleanness, hate, or wandering thought, 

Impure or pure, are all alike to Him.” 

The same doctrine is taught in the Bhagavad Gita. Before 
the great battle between the Pandus and Kurus, Arjuna thus 
spoke to Krishna on seeing in both armies fathers and grandfathers, 
preceptors, uncles, brothers, sons, grandsons, companions and friends: 

“ Seeing these kinsmen, 0 Krishna, desirous to engage in battle, my 
limbs droop down. I do not perceive any good (to accrue) after killing 
(my) kinsmen in battle. These I do not wish to kill though they kill 
(me) even for the sake of sovereignty over the whole world, how much 
less for this earth alone ? How shall we be happy after killing our own 
relatives ? 

“ Having spoken thus Arjuna cast aside his bow and arrows, and sat 
down in his chariot, his mind agitated with grief, his eyes full of tears.” 
Chapter I. 46. 


*Gover’s Folk Songs of Southern India, p. 166. 

f Hinduism and Christianity . Reprinted in the Indian Evangelical Review, 

April, 1885, 



70 


SWAMI VIVEKANANDA ON HINDUISM. 


The “ Deity” encourages him to fight for two reasons. 

1. He ivould not do any harm to himself if he fought as directed . 

“ He who has no feeling of egoism (the feeling that he is the doer of 
the action), and whose mind is not tainted (with the feeling that the 
fruit of the action must accrue to him), even though he kills (all) these 
people, kills not, is not fettered (by the action).” xviii 17. 

2. Those whom he hilled would not be really hilled . 

“The Deity’s Reply.—You have grieved for those who deserve no 
grief. Never did I not exist, nor you, nor these rulers of men ; nor will 
any one of us ever hereafter cease to be. The embodied (self) kills not 
is not killed. It is not born, nor does it ever die, nor, having existed, 
does it exist no more. Unborn, everlasting, unchangeable, and primeval, 
it is not killed when the body is killed. As a man, casting off old clothes, 
puts on others and new ones, so the embodied (self) casting off old bodies, 
goes to others and new ones. It is everlasting, all-pervading stable, firm, 
and eternal. Therefore you ought not to grieve for any being. Looking 
alike on pleasure and pain, on gain and loss, on victory and defeat, then 
prepare for battle, and thus you will not incur sin.” Chap. IT. 11-33. 
(abridged.) 

Fallacy of Krishna’s Reasoning. —Bishop Caldwell shows this 
by supposing it acted upon in the concerns of daily life :— 

“ A man accused of murder neither denies his guilt, nor pleads that 
he committed the act in self-defence, but addresses the Court in the lan¬ 
guage of Krishna. ‘ It is needless,’ he says, • to trouble yourselves about 
the inquiry any further, for it is impossible that any murder can have 
taken place. The soul can neither kill, nor be killed. It is eternal and 
indestructible. When driven from one body it passes into another. Death 
is inevitable, and another birth is equally inevitable. It is not the part 
therefore of wise men, like the judges of this Court to trouble themselves 
about such things.’ Would the judges regard this defence as conclusive ? 
Certainly not. Nor would it be regarded as a conclusive defence by the 
friends of the murdered person, or by the world at large. The criminal 
might borrow from the Gita as many sounding nothings as he liked, but 
the moral sense of the community would continue to regard his murder 
as a crime.” 

It has been stated that the Yamacharis consider their diabolical creed 
the grandest of all religions, (See page 54). Much the same horrible 
doctrine is taught in The Imitation of Sree Krishna , compiled by S. C. 
Muhopadhaya, m. a. The preface contains the following :— 

“ To our mind virtue and vice being relative terms can never be 
applied to one who is regarded as the Supreme Being. The being who 
is equal in virtue as well as in vice is to us a grander being than the 
extremely virtuous man. One whose moral equilibrium remains intact in 
every action which the human mind is capable of imagining is the grand¬ 
est being in the universe. The great Kosmic Law can never affect that 
being who acts without sungum or attraction. To teach this great lesson 
practically Krishna came to the world; and to teach this great lesson 
practically , he treated Vice and Virtue alike. In every line of the Bha- 


DISHONOURING REPRESENTATIONS OP GOD. 


71 


gavad Gita is stamped this great lesson, and the whole of Krishna’s 
may civic life is an embodiment of this teaching. Action committed with¬ 
out attraction is neither virtuous nor vicious, and such action is termed 
Lila in Sanskrit. Such action is the corner stone of the highest Raj- 
Yoga, as is stated in Sloka 18,* Chapter IV. of the Gita. Of coarse 
such action is not possible for one who is the unwilling slave of his past 
Karma ; but this is natural for one who is regarded as the very incar¬ 
nation of the Supreme Being. Conceive a man who is trying his 
utmost to fly from vice to its opposite pole, virtue, imagine also a being 
to whom heatand cold,virtue and vice, are the same ; and you will find that 
the latter is infinitely superior to the former. The one is the infinite, the 
other is the finite; the one is the absolute, the other is the relative.” 
pp. ii, iii. 

Of all false teaching that is the worst, which, as in the pre¬ 
ceding extract, asserts that “ virtue and vice are the same,” that 
“ the being who is equal in virtue as well as in vice is to us a 
grander being than the extremely virtuous man.” Well may the 
prophet’s exclamation apply to such teaching : “ Woe unto them 
that call evil good and good evil; that put darkness for light and 
light for darkness.” 

Dishonouring Representations op God. 

Sir Alfred Lyall says of the Hindus :— 

“ Among most of those millions the religious conception has not yet 
reached that particular stage at which one object of divine Government 
is understood to be the advancement of morals. On the other hand, 
there is a considerable minority whose ideas have passed beyond this 
stage, and who conceive their Divinity as supremely indifferent to all 
things, material as well as moral.” 

“ The gods in no ways admit themselves to be bound by human views 
of morality, while the functions of popular religion very much resemble, 
in their highest range, the functions of a modern government; its 
business is confined to procuring material blessings, warding off evil, 
contending against such physical calamities as famine or pestilence, and 
codifying rules of social utility which have been verified by experience.... 
So long as the gods do not bring more tremendous misfortune upon the 
country they need not be particularly moral; their speciality not being 
the direction of morals, as in later faiths, but the distribution of temporal 
blessings and curses.”f 

Hindu books contain some sublime descriptions of the natural 
attributes of God—that He is infinite, eternal, unchangeable, &c.; 
but these qualities are often understood in an imperfect sense. 
Though God is represented as sarvasalcti, almighty, as it will here¬ 
after be shown, He cannot create anything, that is, call it into 


* “ He is wise among men, he is possessed of devotion, and performs all actions, 
who sees inaction in action, and action in inaction." IV. 18. 
f Asiatic Studies, pp. 59. 62. 



72 


SWAMI VIVEKANANDA ON HINDUISM. 


existence out of nothing. God is often called dayalu , merciful, 
but the Rev. N. Goreh thus proves that, according to Hinduism, it 
cannot be applied to God : 

“ What do you understand by daya, mercy ? Is it not doing good 
to some one without his meriting it ? But it is a fundamental principle 
of all schools of religion among the Hindus that every thing that God 
does to souls, He does with reference to their good and evil deeds only 
in order that they may receive reward for good deeds, and punishment 
for their evil deeds, and He never does anything irrespectively of the 
good and evil deeds of the soul.” 

Hinduism has no correct ideas of holiness. Indra, the chief 
god of the Vedas, was notorious for his drunkenness, yet he is 
called in the Rig-Veda “ the holiest of the holy.” In one of the 
Brahmanas he is thus invoked : “ 0 adulterous lover of Ahalya.” 
These words are used as an endearing appellation, and this act of 
adultery is supposed to be a matter of glory to him. 

Sir Monier Williams says : 

“ It is a rooted idea with all Hindu theologians, of whatever denom¬ 
ination, that the highest condition of the self-existent Being is a 
condition of complete quiescence and inactivity, as well as of complete 
oneness, solitariness, and impersonality.”* 

The Supreme Being, in his ordinary condition, is said to be 
nirguna , without attributes. He exists in a state of dreamless 
repose. 

The nirguna Brahma (neuter) is a being without love or 
mercy. He neither sees, nor hears, nor knows, nor cares about any 
of his oreatures; he has neither the power nor the will to do good 
or evil,—to reward the righteous, or punish the wicked. He is 
supposed to be like an Indian raja who spends his life in sloth 
within his palace, heedless of what is going on throughout his 
dominions, and leaving everything to his ministers. The more a 
Hindu is like Brahma, the more selfish will he be, and the less 
profitable to all around him. 

No temple is erected'by the Hindus to the honour of that one 
Supreme Being whom they all profess to acknowledge, nor are 
there any rites prescribed for his worship. 

After a long period of repose, Brahma becomes possessed of 
ahankdra , self-consciousness. Dissatisfied with his own solitari¬ 
ness, a desire for duality arises in his mind. The three gunas , 
sattva, rajas , and tamas, truth, passion and darkness, are developed. 
He places in the waters a golden egg, which he broods over a 
whole year. From it is born Brahma (masculine) usually repre¬ 
sented as the maker of all things. 

It is asserted that Brahma is nirvikdra , incapable of change. 
How is this statement consistent with the other statement that he 

# Religious Thought and Life in India, p. 180. 



THE FALSE FROMISES OF HINDUISM. 


73 


exists alternately in a saguna and a nirguria state ? How can he 
who is essentially immutable become sometimes void of qualities 
and sometimes endued with qualities ? 

The common people,” says Dr. Kellogg’, “ speak of the soul 
as being f a part of God/ Et is a portion of the Supreme ruler as 
a spark is of fire. Yet in the same breath they will affirm that God 
is akhand, ‘ indivisible/ whence it follows that each soul is the total 
Divine Essence, and that is precisely the strict Vedantic doctrine!” 

The Hindu, mentioned by Max Muller, who denies the Hindus 
are idolaters, also denies that they are polytheists. As already 
quoted, he asserts that <( thousands of texts in the Puranas declare 
in clear and unmistakable terms that there is but one God, who 
manifests Himself as Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra (Siva), in His 
functions of creation, preservation and destruction.” 

The three, though “ manifestations of one God,” fought with one 
another. Siva is said to have cub off with his finger nail one of 
Brahmans five heads. The Vishnu Parana (V. 33) describes 
a terrible battle between Krishna (Vishnu) and Siva aided by his 
son Kartikeya. Siva, defeated, sat down in his car, and Kartikeya 
ran away. 

Prahlada is represented, in the Vishnu Purana, as thus ad¬ 
dressing Vishnu : “ Thou art knowledge and ignorance, truth and 
falsehood, poison and ambrosia.” 

Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva are nowhere regarded in the 
Sastras as holy beings. On the contrary, they are all described as 
stained with great crimes. 

Power is the great attribute worshipped by Hindus. Just as 
wicked and cruel despots are feared and honoured, so gods and 
demons are worshipped whatever may be their character, provided 
they will refrain from injuring or will confer some benefit on their 
dovotees. The gods of Hinduism act like Indian rajas, contending 
with each other for power, each favouring his own party, and 
indulging in every vice or committing any crime his evil heart may 
desire. They reflect the national character. 

According to the proverb, yatha devah, tatha bhaktah, “ as 
is the god so is the worshipper” the worship of such gods must 
have a debasing effect upon the character. 

The False Promises of Hinduism. 

To fleece the people and persuade them to go on pilgrimage 
to supposed holy places, the most outrageous lies are told. Dr. Mitra 
says that the following promises are made with regard to a tree in 
the compound of the Temple of Jagannath at Puri;— 

“ Whoever stands under the shadow of this tree, immediately clears 
himself from the sin of killing Brahmans. Of him who walks round the 
10 


74 


SWAM! VIVEKANANDA ON HINDUISM. 


tree and then worships it, Hari remits all the sins committed in the 
course of a hundred generations.”* 

At the temple of Bhuvaneswara in Orissa, there is a tank 
called Vindu Sagara, supposed to be filled by drops (vindu) from 
all the sacred pools in the three worlds. The water is a dull green 
colour, full of small plants and insects. The following claim is 
made with regard to its waters :— 

“ Whatever merits may be acquired by annual pilgrimages to the 
source of the Ganges, to Prayaga, or to Ganga vSagar, repeated for 60 
years, may be acquired by a single bath in the Vindu-sagara and the 
adoration of Mahesvara.”t 

The Vishnu Purana says of the Ganges :— 

“This sacred stream (the Ganges) heard of, desired, seen, touched, 
bathed in, or hymned, day by day, sanctifies all beings; and those who, 
even at a distance of a hundred yojanas exclaim, ‘Ganga, Ganga,’ atone 
for the sins committed during three previous lives.” II. 8. 

Like rival shopkeepers, each declaring his goods to be the best 
in the world, so the different temples try to outvie each other in 
telling the greatest lies about the merit to be acquired by visiting 
them, in order to extract money from simple-minded worshippers. 
Every intelligent Hindu must acknowledge that assertions like the 
above are pure falsehoods. 

Mr. Sherring thus describes the effects of the common belief 
that all who die on the northJ side of the Ganges at Benares are 
sure to go to heaven :— 

“The poor deluded sensualist, whose life has been passed in abomi¬ 
nable courses, or the covetous mahdjan , a Native banker, who has made 
himself rich by a long course of grinding extortion, or the fanatical 
devotee, more simple than a babe, yet sometimes guilty of the foulest 
crimes, still comes, as of old from the remotest corners of India, as the 
sands of time are slowly ebbing away, and fearful lest the golden grains 
should escape before his long journey is ended, makes desperate efforts 
to hold on his course, till, at length, arriving at the sacred city and 
touching its hallowed soil, his anxious spirit becomes suddenly calm, a 
strange sense, of relief comes over him, and he is at once cheered and 
comforted with the treacherous lie that his sins are forgiven, and his 
soul is saved.”§ 

The unhappy victims find that they have trusted to “ refuges of 
lies” when it is too late, when their disembodied spirits enter 
eternity. 


* Antiquities of Orissa, Vol. IT. p. 115* 
f Antiquities of Orissa, Vol. II. p. 70. 

X The Sacred City of the Hindus. 

$ If they die on the south Bide, they are said to be born asses. 




A THOROUGH REFORMATION OF HINDUISM IMPOSSIBLE. 


75 


A THOROUGH REFORMATION OF HINDUISM IMPOSSIBLE. 

It is granted that minor reforms are practicable in Hinduism. 
The position of women may be raised ; caste restrictions may be 
loosened ; dancing girls may be excluded from temples; the abomi¬ 
nations of the Holi festival may cease. Although all these are 
good in their way and to be encouraged, they utterly fail to effect 
the thorough Reformation which is required. They only lop off a 
few of the branches of the Upas tree, while the stock remains. 

What is required will now be stated, with the consequences 
which necessarily follow. 

I. The acceptance of Monotheism instead of Pantheism 
and Polytheism. 

Hindus admit, it is true, that God is one, and the formula from 
the Chhandogya Upanishad already quoted ekam-evddvityam, “ One 
only without a Second,” is adduced in proof. As already explained, 
this is 'pantheism —not monotheism, as a further formula from the 
Upanishad shows : Sarvam khalvidam Brahma ,” all this (universe) 
is Brahma. Along with pantheism, polytheism is held. 

Monotheism, a belief in one God, conscious of His own existence 
and acting with intelligence, is diametrically opposed to pantheism 
and polytheism ; they are incompatible. Monotheism is universally 
held in all enlightened nations, and there is a growing feeling in 
its favour among educated Hindus. 

The acceptance of this great truth would be logically followed 
by most important changes. 

II. Consequences involved in the acceptance of Monotheism. 

Some of them are the following :— 

1. The Worship of Siva, Vishnu, Krishna, Bam, Ganesa 
Durga, etc., would cease 

If there is only one God, deities, like the above mentioned 
worshipped by Hindus, have no existence ; they are mere names — 
not realities, the inventions of ignorance and priestcraft. Their 
worship is useless, for they do not exist to know it. But it is much 
worse than useless. Suppose the son of a great King, renowned for 
his wisdom, justice and benevolence, neglected his father and 
associated with criminals, what would be thought of him ? It is 
incomparably worse to worship senseless blocks, or supposed deities, 
stained with every vice, instead of the great Creator and Preserver 
of the universe. 

Nor is this all. To set up a pretended king in any state and 
acknowledge him as the rightful ruler is considered high .treason, 
and renders those who take part in it liable to the severest punish¬ 
ment. The great Creator is the rightful lord of the universe which 
He called into being; we derived our existence from Him; we are 
dependent upon Him for every blessing that we enjoy; for. every 
breath that we draw. To worship any other is a defiance of His 


76 


SWAMI YIVJEKANANDA ON HINDUISM. 


authority, a declaration that we will not have Him to reign over 
us. All the guilt that lies in foul rebellion against the mildest and 
most merciful of earthly monarchs—in disobeying the kindest and 
best of fathers—in ingratitude to a generous benefactor; all that 
evil, multiplied a thousand times, lies in rebellion against God. 

If monotheism is accepted, the worship of Vishnu, Siva, and 
the other countless gods of Hinduism must cease. Ho longer 
would people profess to belong to the Vishnu Bhakti or the Siva 
Bhakti; the temples of these gods and goddesses would be desert¬ 
ed ; their festivals would no longer be celebrated; pilgrimages to 
supposed holy places would come to an end. 

2. The Vedas, Upanishads, Puranas, &c, would cease to be 
regarded as sacred. 

If monotheism is true, books pervaded with pantheism and 
polytheism cannot be inspired by God. Some Hindus, ignorant of 
the Vedas, suppose that they contain a pure monotheism. This 
has been shown by quotations to be unfounded. They are decidedly 
polytheistic. 

An examination of the Vishnu Purana proves that it not only 
contains false theology, but false geography, false astronomy. 
There are also numerous statements so evidently fabulous that the 
Hindu intellect must be dwarfed to childhood to accept them. 

3. The Supposed Divine Origin of Caste must be rejected, 
and the Brotherhood of Man acknowledged. 

The same books which teach pantheism and polytheism assert 
that the four castes proceeded from the mouth, arms, thighs and 
feet of Brahma. It has been shown that such books are not in¬ 
spired. The above fiction was invented by Brahmans for their own 
ends. The late Rev. Dr. Krishna Mohun justly says : 

“ Of all forgeries the most flagitious and profane is that, which con¬ 
nects the name of the Almighty with an untruth. If the Brahman, the 
Kshatriya, the Vaishya, and the Sudra did not really proceed from dif¬ 
ferent parts of the Creator’s person, the story is nothing short of 
blasphemy.” 

As already stated, Caste is a gigantic conspiracy against 
the brotherhood of man and should be given up. Brahmans, as such, 
should no longer be honoured, nor supposed low castes treated 
with contempt. All men should be regarded as children of the 
same great Father in heaven, and the Brotherhood of man acknow¬ 
ledged. 

Social distinctions would still exist; authority would still be 
treated with respect; age, learning, and virtue would receive due 
honour; but unjust laws like those quoted would be condemned. 

The consequences which would result from the acknow¬ 
ledgment of monotheism have thus been indicated :— 

1. The worship of Siva, Vishnu, Krishna, Rama, Ganesa, 
Durga, etc., would cease. 


DYAUSH jPITAB, THE HEAVEN FATHER. 


77 


2. The Vedas, Upanishads, Puranas, &c., would no longer 
be regarded as sacred. 

3. Caste would be rejected and the Brotherhood of man 
acknowledged. 

Hinduism thus deprived of its characteristic features would no 
longer exist; it would be an entirely different religion like the 
Brahmo Samaj. 

When, in ancient times, the gods of a man, named Micah, 
were stolen, he said, “ Ye have taken away my gods which I made , 
and what have I more ?” What is now offered in exchange for the 
gods of Hindus ? 

Dyaush Pitar, the Heaven Father. 

It is generally admitted that Hinduism has become more and 
more impure as centuries have rolled on. At present it is com¬ 
monly said that there are 33 crores of divinities. It has been 
shown that it is a mistake to suppose that the Vedas are mono¬ 
theistic. Still, the number of gods in them is generally reduced 
from 33 crores to thrice-eleven, with their wives. 

But let us go back beyond the Vedas to the time when the 
Eastern and Western Aryans lived together somewhere in Central 
Asia, and we apparently find monotheism. 

The oldest Aryan Keligion may best be explained in the 
words of Max Muller :— 

“ Thousands of years ago, before Greek was Greek, and Sanskrit 
was Sanskrit, the ancestors of the Aryan races dwelt together in the 
high lands of Central Asia, speaking one common language. 

“ The terms for God, for house, for father, mother, son and daugh¬ 
ter, for dog and cow, for heart and tears, for axe and tree, identical in all 
the Indo-European idioms are like the watchwords of soldiers. We 
challenge the seeming stranger; and whether he answer with the lips 
of a Greek, a German, or an Indian, we recognise him as one of our¬ 
selves. There was a time when the ancestors of the Celts, the Germans, 
the Slavonians, the Greeks and Italians, the Persians and Hindus, were 
living together within the same fences, separate from the ancestors of 
the Semitic and Turanian races.” 

“ The Aryans were then no longer dwellers in tents, but builders 
of permanent houses. As the name for king is the same in Sanskrit, 
Latin, Teutonic, and Celtic, we know that kingly government was 
established and recognized by the Aryans at the prehistoric period. 
They also worshipped an unseen Being, under the self-same name.”* 

‘‘ If I were asked what I consider the most important discovery 
which has been made during the nineteenth century with respect to the 
ancient history of mankind, I should answer by the following short 
line : 


* Ancient Sanskrit Literature , 



78 


SWAMI VIVEKANANDA ON HINDUISM. 


Sanskrit DYAUSH-PITAR=Greek ZETlSlIATHP (ZEUS 

PATER) = Latin JUPlTER^Old Norse TYR. 

“ Think what this equation implies ! It implies not only that our 
own ancestors and the ancestors of Homer and Cicero (the Greeks and 
Romans) spoke the same language as the people of India—this is a 
discovery which, however incredible it sounded at first, has long ceased 
to cause any surprise—but it implies and proves that they all had once 
the same faith, and worshipped for a time the same supreme Deity 
under exactly the same name—name which meant Heaven-Father. 

“ If we wish to realise to its fullest extent the unbroken continuity 
in the language, in the thoughts and words of the principal Aryan nations, 
let us look at the accents in the following list:— # 



Sanskrit. 

Greek. 

Nom. 

Dyaus. 

Zevs 

Gen. 

Divas. 

A 

Loc. 

Divi 

A u 

Acc. 

Divam. 

A La 

Voc. 

Dyaus. 

Zed 


“ Here we see that at the time when the Greeks had become such 
thorough Greeks that they hardly knew of the existence of India, the 
people at Athens laid the accent in the oblique cases of Zeus on exactly 
the same syllable on which the Brahmans laid it at Benares, with this 
difference only, that the Brahmans knew the reason whv, while the 
Athenians did not.” 

“ There is a monotheism which precedes the polytheism of the Veda, 
and even in the invocation of their innumerable gods, the remembrance 
of a God, one and infinite, breaks through the mist of an idolatrous 
phraseology, like the blue sky that is hidden by passing clouds.” 

“ Thousands of years have passed away since the Aryan nations 
separated to travel to the North and the South, the West and the East: 
they have each formed their languages, they have each founded empires 
and philosophies, they have each built temples and razed them to the 
ground ; they have all grown older, and it may be wiser and better ; but 
when they search for a name for that which is most exalted and yet most 
dear to every one of us, when they wish to express both awe and love, the 
infinite and the finite, they can but do what their old fathers did when 
gazing up the eternal sky, and feeling the presence of a Being as far as 
far and as near as near can be ; they can but combine the self-same words 
and utter once more the primeval Aryan prayer, Heaven Father, in that 
form which will endure for ever, ‘Our Father, which art in heaven.” 

Dyaush-Pitar, our Father in Heaven. He is the true Jagan - 
nath , Lord of the world, entitled to our reverence, obedience, and 
love. Educated Hindus, Dyaush-Pitar who was once worshipped 
by the Aryans before their separation, “Him declare we unto you.” 
He has now given a fuller revelation of Himself. Ancient Europe 
was polytheistic like modern India. Even in Athens, styled by 
Milton the “ eye of Greece and mother of arts and eloquence,” idols 

# Nineteenth Century , Oct. 1885, pp, 626, 627. 




THE TRUE AVATARA, 


79 


were so numerous that it‘was said to be easier to find a god in it 
than to find a man. Paul, tbe first Christian Missionary to Europe, 
himself an Asiatic, thus addressed the Athenians :— 

“ The God that made the world and all things therein, He, being 
Lord of heaven and earth, dwellehh notin temples made with hands; 
neither is served by men’s hands, as though He needed anything, seeing 
He Himself giveth to all life and breath and all things ; and He made of 
one every nation of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, having 
determined their appointed seasons, and the bounds of their habitation ; 
that they should seek God, if haply they might feel after Him and find 
Him, though He is not far from any one of us : for in Him we live and 
move and have our being: as certain even of your own poets have said, 
for we are also His offspring. Being then the offspring of God, we 
ought not to think that the God-head is like unto gold, or silver, or 
stone, graven by art and device of man. The times of ignorance there¬ 
fore God overlooked ; but now He commandeth men that they should 
all everywhere repent: inasmuch as He hath appointed a day in the 
which He will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom He 
hath ordained; whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that 
He hath raised Him from the dead.” 

Let the great God who made the world and all things therein, 
in whom we live and move and have our being, alone be worship¬ 
ped instead of idols and imaginary deities stained with vice. 

The True Avatara. 

The most astounding and untrue assertion of the Swami in his 
Chicago address was the denial that we are sinners. 

“Ye are the children of God, the sharers of immortal bliss, 
holy and perfect beings. f Ye, divinities, on earth, sinners/ It is 
a sin to call a man so. It is a standing libel in human nature/’ 
Page 13. 

This may be New Hinduism; Old Hinduism as already ex¬ 
plained, gives a very different verdict. 

It is admitted that the Hindu ideas with regard to incarnations, 
though defective in many respects, recognise, says Hardwick, the 
idea of God descending to the level of the fallen creature and be¬ 
coming man to lighten the burden of pain and misery under which 
the universe is groaning. 

“ No thoughtful student of the past records of man,” says 
Trench, “ can refuse to acknowledge that through all its history 
there has run the hope of a redemption from the evil which oppress¬ 
es it; and as little can deny that this hope has continually attached 
itself to some single man. The help that is coming to the world, 
it has seen incorporated in a person. The generations of men, weak 
and helpless in themselves, have evermore been looking after One 
in whom they may find all they look for vainly in themselves and 
in those around them.” 


80 


SWAMI VIVEKANANDA ON HINDUISM. 


But although Hinduism is right in accepting the doctrine 
of incarnation, its views regarding what is to be expected are 
grossly erroneous. The chief Hindu incarnation is that of Krishna, 
whose life is given in the Bhagavata Purana. 

He is reported to have killed several imaginary demons ; but, 
as already described, in many respects his conduct was just the 
opposite of what it should have been. The false teaching attri¬ 
buted to him in the Bhagavad Gita has been exposed. 

The following is a brief description of the Lord Jesus Christ 
as recorded in the gospels. Love and purity were the leading 
features of His character. 

He taught that the first and great command is to love God 
with all our heart. Our duty to our fellowmen is also included in 
love. It is said of Himself that He “ went about doing good.” 
Sometimes He was so engaged in teaching the people or working 
miracles, that he had no time even to eat. None who came to 
Him were sent empty away. It is said of the sick, that “ He healed 
them all.” He directed that the claims of strangers, widows, and 
orphans, the poor and the sick, should receive special attention. 

He was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners. 
No guile was found in His mouth. He was full of grace and 
truth. He challenged His bitterest enemies to find in Him any 
stain of sin . 

Instead of spending His life in pleasure, He was a man of 
sorrows and acquainted with griefs. His life was one of privation. 
It is said of Him that He had not where to lay His head. He sym¬ 
pathized with all our sorrows. He wept with Martha and Mary at 
the grave of their brother. His griefs and sorrows were ours. He 
was wounded for our transgressions; He was bruised for our 
iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon, and with His 
stripes we are healed. 

When Kansans washerman justly blamed Krishna for injuring 
his master’s clothes, he killed him. Of Jesus it is said, who “ when 
He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered, He threatened 
not.” When the people of a certain village refused to give Him 
lodgings for the night, His disciples wished to call down fire from 
heaven to destroy them ; but He rebuked them, saying that He had 
not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them. 

Truly this was the Son of God, the spotless Incarnation ! 

The Future Religion of India. 

From the well-known saying that “ History repeats itself,” 
we can form some idea of the future. Under like circumstances like 
events will probably happen. The position of India at present very 
much resembles that of ancient Europe at the beginning of the 
Christian era. The changes which took place in the latter will be 
repeated in the former. 


THE FUTURE RELIGION OF INDIA. 


81 


A distinguished French Orientalist says that as India has 
already adopted the science and arts of Christian nations, so she 
will one day spontaneously embrace tlieir faith. 

India has adopted the science of Christian nations. No edu¬ 
cated Hindu now believes in Mouut Meru, in seas of ghi, wine, &c,, 
or that eclipses are caused by Asurs seeking to seize the sun and 
moon. The arts of Christian nations have also been accepted. 
Railways, the use of the electric telegraph, photographs, weaving 
by steam power, &c., have been introduced, and are freely employ¬ 
ed. The Indian would be looked upon as an idiot who urged his 
countrymen to stick to the ‘ • national” conveyances of palanquins 
and bullock carts, and not travel by the “ foreign” invention of 
railways. 

It has already been shown bow Christianity is influencing and 
elevating Indian public opinion. For many centuries some Hindu 
temples had the most indecent sculptures, prostitutes took a pro¬ 
minent part in their religious services, without a voice being raised 
against them. The Penal Code punishes people who sell or expose 
obscene books, pictures, or statues; but permits such things in the 
name of religion. Some educated Hindus, through the spread of 
Christian light, are beginning to protest against such abomina¬ 
tions. A woman, according to Hinduism, is denied religious in¬ 
struction, and taught that she has simply to consider her husband 
as her god. Under Christian influence, female education is 
spreading, and the just rights of women, long denied, are begin¬ 
ning to be acknowledged, though not yet conceded. 

The Rev. W. W. Holdsworth says, that the greatest benefit of 
the work of Missionaries in India is the “ quickening of the native 
conscience, and the bringing into view a high religious ideal.” 

“ What passed unchallenged in former days is rejected to-day. 
Hindus are speaking of the personality and fatherhood of God. 
They have not learned that from the pantheism of their philo¬ 
sophical systems. Hindus accept the purity and holiness of God as 
an axiom—they have not learned that from the history of Krishna. 
‘ The brotherhood of man’, is a common appeal in their discussions, 
but this new teaching is enough to make the ghost of their lawgiver 
Manu rise in horror from his grave. All these—the strongly held 
convictions of the best men in India—are the easily recognised 
results of Christian teaching; and a conviction of the personality 
and holiness of God and of the brotherhood of man must ever be 
the foundations of all religion and morality.” 

Already Indian Christians number above two millions, and 
they are increasing every year. One of the most eloquent speakers 
at the National Congresses is a Bengali Christian. 

The Bible says, “ The gods that have not made the heavens 
and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth and from 
under these heavens.” It also contains many prophecies regarding 
11 


82 


SWAM! VIVEKANANDA ON HINDUISM, 


the spread of Christianity. It was forefcold of Jesas Christ, a His 
name shall endure for ever; men shall be blessed in Him, and all 
nations shall call Him blessed “ His dominion is an everlasting 
dominion which shall not pass away“The isles shall wait for 
His law, and in His name shall the nations trust.” These pro¬ 
phecies we see being fulfilled before our eyes. 

The change of religion which took place in Europe, in spite of 
the strongest opposition of the Roman Government, will also 
happen in India. The temples of Vishnu and Siva will yet be as 
deserted as those of Jupiter and Minerva in Europe. The Eastern 
and Western Aryans will kneel at the same footstool and address 
the same Heaven Father. When this change will take place 
we do not know. It took three centuries to overthrow heathenism 
in ancient Europe, and it may take as long in modern India. Light, 
however, is spreading, and an Indian Luther may yet arise to bring 
about a rapid reformation.* 

Christianity alone has a Saviour. Every thoughtful man feels 
the burden of guilt which he carries about with him; in the battle 
with evil which every man should fight, he feels that he needs 
help. Christianity provides both. Alone we entered the world ; 
alone we depart. Christianity does not leave us to pass trem¬ 
blingly into an unknown eternity; it promises the Saviour's pre¬ 
sence with us in that trying hour, and comforts us with the hope 
of a blessed immortality. 

Let the reader seriously ponder the foregoing remarks. Let 
him not swim, like a dead fish, with the current of superstition. 
For further information he is referred to Short Papers for Seekers 
after Truth, (1 An.), or to Dr. Murray Mitchell's Letters on the 
Evidences of Christianity (6 As.); but above all to the New Testament, 
obtainable in any of the Bible Depots scattered over India. 


# For further details under this head, see The History of Christianity in India, 
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85 


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87 


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83 


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PRINTED at THE S. P. 0. K. PRESS, VEPERY, MADRAS— 1895~ 







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